Asia Offshore Drilling (AOD) has put pen to paper on a $184m option to build a third jack-up drilling rig at Singapore’s Keppel FELS.
The Mermaid Maritime affiliate, which has until 29 July to float shares on the Oslo Exchange, says it expects the unit to hit the water in the third quarter of 2013.
In a filing with securities authorities, AOD also detailed its management agreement with John Fredriksen’s Seadrill.
Subsidiary Seadrill Deepwater is on the brink of pocketing $2m under a novation agreement that calls for the construction, technical and commercial management of AOD’s fleet.
In addition, the company says Mermaid has agreed “in principle” to transfer corporate management to Seadrill.
The deal is expected to be sealed when AOD ties up its Oslo IPO.
As TradeWinds has reported, Seadrill spent $54m during a private placement of AOD shares and now owns 33.75% of the company.
The first pair of drilling rigs are scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2012 and second quarter of 2013, respectively.