JANUARY 23, 2012 — Houston-headquartered Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE: ATW) reports that one of its subsidiaries has been awarded a drilling services contract for the newbuild jack-up Atwood Orca by Mubadala Petroleum.

The Atwood Orca is currently under construction at Sembcorp Marine's PPL Shipyard in Singapore. It is expected to be delivered in early May 2013, ahead of its scheduled June delivery.

The Atwood Orca is a Pacific Class 400 ultra-premium jack-up unit rated to work in up to 400 feet of water. Features include, 75 feet cantilever, accommodations for 150 persons, three 2,200 horsepower mud pumps, 7,500 psi high pressure mud system, 18 3/4 inch,15,000 psi BOP, derrick and associated traveling equipment rated to 1,500 kips, and offline tubular/casing make-up capability. The unit is capable of jacking with full pre-load and making in-field moves with drill pipe in the derrick.

The agreement with Mubdala is for a firm duration of two years. After delivery,the unit will mobilize for a period of approximately ten days to its first location offshore Thailand.

The contract adds $116 million in revenue backlog, bringing Atwood's total revenue backlog to approximately $2.6 billion as of January 22, 2013.