Dallas, Texas 10/28/2013 (Financialstrend) – Vantage Drilling Company (AMEX:VTG) is a $0.54 billion market capitalized, small capped oil and gas drilling contractor which specializes in off shore drilling projects. It operates its business based on a fleet of 7 ultra deep water drilling ships and rigs. In its efforts to expand and scale up its scope of operations it has commissioned construction of another new drilling ship named Cobalt Explorer. The firm draws its revenue by renting out the drilling ships and trained personal to oil exploration companies on rent which is calculated on a per day basis. It also provides consultancy services for off shore drilling to oil and natural gas companies and earns revenue on a turnkey basis.
It is currently going through a fast paced development program which is seeing its state of the art ships and rigs being developed for operations. In order to sustain and morph into a fully fledged end to end oil drilling major, the firm has been reworking its debt terms to increase its liquidity.
In context is the firm’s announcement in late September that one of its latest “ultra deepwater drill ship” acquisition has commenced operations in the seas of South East Asia. In more good news, the drilling company has managed to get a confirmed letter of intent which if converted into a binding contract will keep the sapphire drilling ship occupied for 18 months. The income expected from the 18 months contract works out to roughly $100 million as per the company insiders.
It is also considering commencement of recovery procedures with the South Korean firm STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. if its restructuring plans do not satisfy VTG. Readers should note that Vantage had commissioned the construction of its latest state of the art, drilling ship named Palladium Explorer and the construction activity has now been suspended as STX goes through a bank guided restructuring exercise.