“Petrobras and Ensco announce today that they have agreed to a settlement of all claims relating to the ENSCO DS-5 drilling services agreement,†Ensco said.
Petrobras in January 2016 cancelled a drilling contract with Ensco for the drillship DS-5 over corruption charges.
The drillship had been hired by Petrobras from Pride International, a company that Ensco took over in 2011.
In its cancellation notice in January 2016, Petrobras claimed there were irregularities with respect to the contracting of drillship DS-5 prior to Ensco’s acquisition in 2011.
The alleged irregularities purportedly involved a former third-party marketing consultant of Pride to provide services in connection with the DS-5 drilling services contract.
At the time Ensco said there was no evidence that “Pride, the Company or any current or former employees were aware of or involved in any wrongdoing.â€
Petrobras had alleged that Pride had knowledge that the shipbuilder of DS-5 made improper payments to the former third-party marketing consultant who then shared the improper payments with former employees of Petrobras and that Pride may have assisted in or facilitated these improper payments.
In a statement on Thursday, Ensco said the terms of the agreement were confidential, adding that “no payments will be made by either party in connection with this settlement.â€
It added: “The parties also agreed to normalize business relations. As a result, the agreement provides for Ensco’s participation in current and future Petrobras tenders on the same basis as all other companies invited to these tenders.â€
As for the drillship behind the now resolved spat, the rig has been cold-stacked in Spain.
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