Seadrill to purchase ultra-deepwater drillship West Polaris

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Seadrill Limited has announced it has exercised a purchase option for the West Polaris, a 6th generation Ultra-Deepwater drillship, from Ship Finance International Limited.

The West Polaris was acquired by Ship Finance in 2008 and subsequently bareboat chartered to Seadrill with purchase options commencing in 2012.The purchase option price is US$456 million and total consideration payable to Ship Finance is US$108 million.

The transaction will be executed as a purchase of shares in Ship Finance’s asset owning subsidiary SFL West Polaris Limited, which is currently a consolidated entity in Seadrill.

Currently Seadrill is in possession of 10 drillships a majority of which are operating West African waters of Angola and Nigeria with another eight under construction by Samsung and DSME.

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