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Nicosia, Cyprus – January 8, 2015 Ocean Rig UDW Inc. (NASDAQ:ORIG) (the “Company” or “Ocean Rig”), a global provider of offshore deepwater drilling services, announced today that certain of its subsidiaries have entered into an Omnibus Agreement (hereafter referred to as the “Agreement”) with ENI Angola S.p.A (hereafter referred to as “ENI”) pursuant to which ENI has exercised its option to extend the contract for the drillship Ocean Rig Poseidon for a further one year until the second quarter of 2017. As part of the contract extension for the Ocean Rig Poseidon, Ocean Rig has agreed to adjust the existing dayrate of the Ocean Rig Poseidon contract in exchange for ENI agreeing to enter into two contracts (the “New ENI Contracts”) for the employment of one or more of Ocean Rig’s available drillships in West Africa starting in the first quarter of 2015 for an aggregate period of approximately 8 months. As a result of this Agreement the total contract backlog of Ocean Rig has increased by approximately $187.0 million. The Agreement outlined above remains subject to customary closing conditions including the approval by national authorities which we expect will be obtained before the end of the first quarter of 2015. 
Ocean Rig Poseidon George Economou, Ocean Rig’s Chairman and CEO commented: “We are pleased to extend our relationship with ENI. This transaction is the natural consequence of the good cooperation, performance and flexibility shown by both parties to enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement. Assuming the consummation of this agreement, Ocean Rig’s revenue backlog now stands at approximately $5.4 billion which provides us with the necessary flexibility to navigate the more challenging markets in 2015.” Fleet Employment Update as of 31 December, 2014 
About Ocean Rig
Ocean Rig’s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market where it trades under the symbol ?ORIG. Visit the Company’s website at www.ocean-rig.com. Ocean Rig press release 
Ocean Rig Poseidon 
Ocean Rig Poseidon |
