History
Songa Offshore AS was founded in January 2005 with the purchase of the two semisubmersibles, Mata Redonda and La Muralla. The rigs were purchased from the Mexican company, IPC. The Mata Redonda was renamed Songa Venus and La Muralla was renamed Songa Mercur.
In April 2005, Songa Offshore ASA was founded. The shares of Songa Offshore ASA were listed on the Norwegian OTC list in May 2005, under ticker code, SONG. In connection with the bond financing, the company issued warrants traded on the OTC list under ticker code, SONW.
The rigs were delivered to Songa Offshore in June 2005, and were moved to Galveston, where the company began preparing the rigs for work. Later same year Songa Offshore purchased the drill ship Glomar Robert F Bauer, the rig was renamed Songa Saturn and delivered November 2005.
Songa Offshore was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange 26 January 2006.
The Songa Saturn entered a 14 month shipyard stay in Turkey for refurbishment and re-certification. The drill ship thereafter went to work offshore Equatorial Guinea.
End of October 2005 Songa Offshore purchased 20.187 % of the semi submersible Deepsea Bergen.
Songa Offshore recruited an experienced, highly respected industry management team in September 2005 headquartered in Houston, Texas. By Q3 2006, Songa left their Marketing office in Houston and moved its operations office to Singapore where the Company could have greater access to operations of the rigs.
Early March 2006 Songa Offshore purchased the semisubmersible drilling rig Stena Dee. The rig, now named Songa Dee is currently working on a 2+1 year contract with Marathon and Lundin commenced in Q2 2009.
During Q1 2006 Songa Venus was transported to Singapore and underwent a major re-fit and upgrade in preparation for a 1+1 year contract with ENI and Inpex in Australia commencing October same year.
The Songa Mercur was also taken to Singapore to undergo upgrade work in order to commence operations in Australia, the rig entered into a 1+1 year contract with Santos commencing operations in Australia July 2007.
In November 2006, the Company sold its interests in the rig Deepsea Bergen to a group of investors. The sale price was USD 53.5 million, generating a profit of USD 19.1 million.
In January 2007, Songa Offshore purchased from Odfjell Drilling the midwater semi submersible Deepsea Trym for USD 238.5 million. Odfjell Drilling will continue to operate the rig now named Songa Trym working for Statoil in Norway until July 2012 + options.
In Q2 2008, Songa Offshore ASA entered into an agreement with Odfjell Drilling to acquire the Ocean-Ranger semisubmersible Songa Delta with an acquisition price of USD 428.5 million. The rig will continue to be operated by Odfjell Drilling for the current 3 year contract with DNO/Wintershall, which started up in Q2 2009, under a similar Management contract as entered into for Songa Trym.
In September 2008 Songa Offshore Corporate Operations and Finance groups established a new Corporate headquarter located in Limassol Cyprus. In December 2008 the Company was converted to a European public company limited by shares (SE).
In May 2009 Songa Offshore SE was redomiciled to Cyprus, and it is registered in Limassol, Cyprus.
