Noble Corporation  announces plans to divest the cold stacked drillships Pacific Meltem and Pacific Scirocco in order to eliminate costs related to these units and prioritize resources on the existing marketed fleet.  The Company intends to divest these units in a manner which would effectively retire them permanently from drilling operation, including potentially scrapping the units.

Robert W. Eifler, President and Chief Executive Officer of Noble Corporation plc, stated, “Our decision to retire these non-contributing assets is based on a continuous cost-benefit evaluation of idle capacity.  These retirements will be immediately cash flow accretive and result in a leaner, fitter fleet composition for Noble going forward.”