Offshore driller Northern Offshore has sold its semi-submersible rig Energy Driller to an unnamed party for conversion to alternative use.

The unit had previously been cold stacked at a shipyard in Bahrain following completion of a term drilling contract in India.

Northern Offshore previously sold the drillship Energy Searcher in late 2016.

Northern Offshore Chairman and (Interim) CEO, Dr. Yuanhui Sun said, “The sale of the Energy Driller completes Northern Offshore's strategy to divest of its floating drilling rig assets and allows us to focus our resources on building and operating a fleet of new, high specification jack-ups.”

Earlier this year, Northern took delivery of a new jack-up drilling rig built by a shipyard in China. The Energy Emerger is a high specification jack-up of the Gusto CJ-46 design rated for water depths up to 375 ft.

Prior to that, Northern sold its two veteran jack-up drilling rigs to Dixtone Holdings, an affiliate of the Perenco Group.