Australian PE firm participates in $1b Dubai oil driller deal

The capital has been used to purchase 38 shallow water drilling rigs for the company from New York and Zurich-listed oil driller Transocean. The purchase price of the rigs includes approximately $855 million in cash and $195 million in seller financing, which will take the form of preference shares issued by an affiliate of Shelf Drilling.

As part of the agreement, Transocean will provide various transition support services to Shelf Drilling following the closing of the deal, which will be in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Shelf Drilling, which has been newly formed and is equally backed by Castle Harlan, CHAMP and Lime Rock, will acquire 37 standard jackup rigs and one swamp barge. It will operate throughout Southeast Asia, India, West Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

"This is an exciting opportunity with great potential," said David Mullen, president and CEO of Shelf Drilling. "Our strategy will be to maintain an exclusive focus on shallow water drilling, leveraging decades of complementary industry experience of management, three leading investment firms, and our employees, to provide best in class drilling operations for our customers."

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Infrastructure
• CHAMP Private Equity
• energy