Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (the “Company”) announced that one of its subsidiaries has entered into a turnkey construction contract with Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (“DSME”) to construct a fourth ultra-deepwater drillship, to be named the Atwood Archer, at the DSME yard in South Korea.

The Atwood Archer is expected to be delivered by December 31, 2015 at a total cost, including two blowout preventers (“BOPs”), project management, drilling and handling tools and spares, of approximately $635 million. Upon delivery, the Atwood Archer will become the seventeenth mobile offshore drilling unit owned by the Company.

The design of the Atwood Archer will be identical to the previously ordered Atwood Advantage, Atwood Achiever and Atwood Admiral - all four drillships are DP-3 dynamically-positioned, dual derrick ultra-deepwater drillships rated to operate in water depths up to 12,000 feet and drill to a depth of up to 40,000 feet.

This order comprises the execution of the option that was set to expire on June 30, 2013. In connection with the exercise, the Company has also secured an option to construct a fifth ultra-deepwater drillship at a similar cost to the Atwood Archer and with an expected delivery in September 2016, and which requires exercise by March 31, 2014. At this time, the Company has made no determination as to whether the option will be exercised.

Press Release, June 24, 2013; Image: Atwood