Seadrill has reached an agreement with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard in South Korea to defer the delivery of two ultra-deepwater drillships, the West Aquila and West Libra, until Q2 2018 and Q1 2019 respectively.
Under the terms of the original construction contracts, the units were to be delivered by the end Q2 2016 and the total final yard installment for both units of over US$800 million was due at that time.
This agreement significantly improves the company's near term liquidity position by deferring these capex commitments to 2018 and 2019 with no further payments to the yard until that time.