Samsung Heavy Industries Co. has signed a deal to lease its drill ship to Italian oilfield services company Saipem for two years, the shipbuilder said Tuesday.

The deal to be effective from November 2021 to August 2023 has an option for Saipem to purchase the leased drill ship, it added.

But the company did not reveal the value of the deal.

The drill ship is one of two drill ships that Swiss-based offshore driller Transocean Ltd. relinquished without specifying the reason in September 2019.

The two ships were originally ordered by Ocean Rig UDW Inc. each in 2013 and 2014. They were acquired by Transocean in 2018.

Excluding the leased drill ship, Samsung Heavy has four drill ships in stock as buyers canceled their orders citing a slide in oil prices.

Samsung Heavy said it can normalize its management as it is trying to sell other drill ships as soon as possible and improve its financial health.

The company also expects offshore plant market conditions to recover in the second half of the year on the back of a rise in oil prices.

Samsung Heavy Industries, plagued by cumulative losses, plans to reduce its capital stock to improve its financial status by cutting the face value of its shares from 5,000 won to 1,000 won on July 26.

The company will decide on its plan to sell new shares to raise nearly 1 trillion won at its board meeting slated for next month. (Yonhap)