Vantage Drilling closes India office
Houston-based Vantage Drilling closed its Mumbai office this month (October) laying off most staff.
Blame low oil price and lack of activity - a sharp contrast to when Vantage entered India in 2010 with drillship Platinum Explorer hired by ONGC for five years at an EDR of $642,285/day - unthinkable today. "The contract ended in December 2015," says an industry source.
"Since then there has been no work and Vantage wants to cut costs." In November last year (2015) Vantage filed for bankruptcy protection and its shares were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. In India only two people are left on the company payroll.
"They will move to a smaller office," adds a source. Despite the cutbacks Vantage is expected to offer Platinum in an ONGC tender to hire two DP drillships that can drill in water depths of 1500 metres.
In June this year (2016) Vantage was defeated by Aban Offshore in an ONGC tender to drill development wells at KG-DWN-98/2. Platinum is currently 'warm-stacked' at Labuan in Malaysia a decision that cost the company around $20,000/day.
For the quarter ended June 30 2016 Vantage reported a net loss of $35.7m.
