Watson, Farley & Williams (“WFW”), a leading international law firm, is pleased to announce that it has advised DNB on the recent signing of a US$530m long-term loan facility supported by the Korean and Norwegian export credit agencies, KEXIM, GIEK and Eksportkreditt to finance the Odfjell Drilling rig Deepsea Aberdeen.
Deepsea Aberdeen is a sixth generation harsh environment drilling rig under construction at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard in Korea and after its delivery, scheduled for May 2014, will start drilling operations under a seven year contract with BP in the UK sector of the North Sea.
In addition to the Export Credit Agency support, the loan will be funded by DNB, Nordea, Swedbank and Danske Bank.
Partner, Nigel Thomas led the WFW London team, supported by associate Ida Marie Oedegaard.
Nigel Thomas comments: “We were very pleased to have advised DNB on this major deal. It follows quickly on from an earlier US$1.35bn drillship loan arranged by DNB earlier this year on which we also advised – and demonstrates the leading role of both WFW and its client DNB in these major ECA-supported financings in the offshore sector.”
