The UK headquartered and New York Stock-listed Noble Corporation plc (Noble) has announced new contract awards for 9 rigs comprising approximately $1.3bn of backlog, including a three-year contract for the harsh environment semisubmersible Noble GreatWhite, which will expand the company’s existing Norway presence into the harsh environment floater market.

“These important backlog additions indicate a strong and broad-based demand for deepwater drilling on a multi-year basis. Additionally, the redeployment of four currently idle deepwater rigs should drive a meaningful utilization improvement across our fleet, with 92% of our 24 marketed floaters now contracted compared to 75% in our prior fleet status report,” says Robert W. Eifler, president and chief executive officer of Noble.

“While these programs will present incremental one-time capital expenditure requirements in 2026, we expect them to help drive significantly increased fleet EBITDA and free cash flow in future years, which will be supported by a material reduction in capital expenditure beyond 2026. We look forward to expanding our scale in Norway while continuing to focus on reliable service quality and execution for all of our customers,” he added.

The new contract awards as announced by Noble, include the following:

On a combined basis, the company anticipates that these contract awards will entail approximately $50m of contract preparation capital expenditure for 2026 in addition to the Noble GreatWhite program.