Woodside was known to be shopping for a suitable design for a semi-submersible drilling unit to go on a long-term charter at Browse.
Norwegian player Seadrill, Denmark’s Maersk Drilling, New York-listed Parker Drilling and Houston-based Atwood Oceanics were said to have teamed up with participating yards to jointly propose rig designs and submit charter dayrates earlier this year.
The newbuild cost estimates came up to about A$340 million ($332 million) and the proposed charter dayrates to about $350,000, sources said.
