Friday, October 1, 2010

BP (NYSE:BP), Exxon (NYSE:XOM) Dispute Pushes Noble (NYSE:NE) Shares Down

The announcement by Noble Corp. (NYSE:NE) they were in the midst of arbitrating a disagreement between BP Plc (NYSE:BP) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) over one of their rigs pushed the price of Noble shares down over 3 percent Thursday.

The Homer Ferrington rig is the one being fought over, which has been idle since April 24 in Libya, while the two oil giants hash out their differences.

Noble said in a regulatory filing that they had "initiated arbitration proceedings” and “Payment of the dayrate is subject to the resolution of this dispute.”

At the same time, Noble revealed a large number of their rigs had experience “a significant increase in downtime.”

In the filing Noble added that during the “period of limitation on certain activities” the the Noble Driller rig leased to Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE:RDS-a) has a daily “suspension rate” of $46,000 to $48,000."

Starting in 2011, the rig should work at a daily rate of $382,000 to $384,000.

No comments: