Aban Offshore bags Rs 1110 crore order: Sources

MUMBAI: Offshore oil drilling rig contractor Aban Offshore has bagged a major contract worth Rs 1,110 crore from ONGC, say sources.
At 11:30 a.m.; the stock was at Rs 325.35, up 1.83 per cent, on the BSE. It touched a high of Rs 330.70 and a low of Rs 320.70 in trade today.

The order is a charter hire contract for a 600- foot floater rig called Aban Ice. The company will be customising the rig for ONGC.

The contract period is for 3 years and the company is likely to earn revenue of $1.75 lakh per day through this order.

The management has declined to comment on order win development.

Earlier this month, the debt-ridden company bagged two major contracts.

It won $177 million (about Rs 955 crore) contract for deploying jack-up rig Deep Driller 1, owned by its step down unit Offshore Mexico, for 1,115 days. The contract is likely to commence during July 2013.

It has also signed $152 million (about Rs 828 crore) contract for deployment of the jack-up rig Deep Driller 7 for a firm period of 1,005 days.

Recently, ICICI Securities raised its earnings forecast for Aban Offshore by about 17 per cent to Rs 85.1 a share for FY14 and by 32 per cent to Rs 99.2 a share for FY15. It has a "buy" rating on the stock with a target of Rs 409.