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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lucretius who wrote (9813)	1/26/1998 11:56:00 PM
From: Rob Hinton	Respond to of 95453

To: Thread; Subject: Pride, New rig orders, very big bucks, ? -------------------- Is it ok to post this from Yahoo? Or should I just give the link? ------------------- Monday January 26, 6:22 pm Eastern Time Pride group to build total of 6 drill rigs HOUSTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Pride International Inc said Monday it it will participate in the construction and ownership of three additional enhanced Amethyst-class dynamically positioned semi-submersible drilling rigs. This will increase to six the number of Amethyst semis to be built by Pride and partners, Maritima Petroleo e Engenharia Ltda of Brazil and Workships Contractors BV of the Netherlands, at an expected cost of $1 billion, the company said. Pride said its equity investment will be about $30 million. It said the group will build the Amethyst 5, 6 and 7 pursuant to contracts reached recently with Petrobras, Brazil's state oil company, for operations offshore Brazil. In September, Pride noted, the group announced similar agreements with Petrobras for the Amethyst 2, 3 and 4. All six units will be built almost simultaneously over the next two years. Pride will participate for an ownership of 30 percent in the units and provide technical support necessary for their operations, it said. The company said the engineering and design of the units has progressed into the final stages. The group has reached preliminary agreements with a shipyard in North America to construct at least two of the rigs. Negotiations are in progress for the construction of the remaining rigs with other North American and European shipyards. Pride said the group is also working toward the conclusion of non-recourse, project-specific loans to be repaid from the proceeds of the Petrobras contracts. Pride said its investment will be accounted for on an equity basis. Accordingly, the assets and liabilities will receive off-balance sheet treatment and Pride will include only its share of net income from the rigs in its future operating results. The six Amethyst rig operating contracts will have initial terms ranging from six to eight years, Pride said. Project revenues during the initial contract terms should aggregate about $2 billion, although the contracts contain provisions for the payment of additional bonus amounts subject to certain operating conditions.