TotalEnergies acquires Vantage drillship in new joint venture

TotalEnergies and Vantage Drilling International have signed a binding agreement to create a new joint venture (JV), with TotalEnergies acquiring the Tungsten Explorer drillship from Vantage.

TotalEnergies will pay $199 million for a 75% interest, with Vantage owning the remaining 25%. Leveraging Vantage’s deep offshore drilling experience and longstanding collaboration with TotalEnergies, Vantage is set to operate the drillship for 10 years.

“TotalEnergies is pleased to enter into this agreement with Vantage to take shared ownership of a drillship, the Tungsten Explorer, which we already used in exploration and development activities in Namibia, Cyprus and Congo,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies. “Through this innovative partnership, TotalEnergies will be able to hedge deep-offshore drilling costs: the JV will provide us with both value and flexibility.”