Frontier Drilling, Inc. is an independent drilling contractor headquartered in Houston, Texas. With a workforce of approximately 1000 operating in US, Asia, South America, and Europe, Frontier Drilling operates and manages a fleet of conventional drillships, semi-submersibles and floating production, storage, offloading (FPSO) vessels. Shell EP Offshore Ventures Limited and Frontier Drillships Ltd., a subsidiary of Frontier Drilling, have signed a deepwater/arctic drillship Joint Venture agreement. Under the agreement, Shell and Frontier will build and rollout a new drillship concept, known as the ‘Bully’ rig. The ‘Bully’ rig design effectively sets a new standard and offers a flexible, smaller but highly capable, vessel suited for deepwater and arctic drilling, while reducing the construction and operational costs compared to current new-build drilling rigs of similar capability. The Shell/Frontier Joint Venture expects to deliver the first 'Bully' rig to the Gulf of Mexico in late 2009, or early 2010, and it will be operated by Frontier on behalf of the Joint Venture under a separate management services contract. The Joint Venture expects to build and own several of these vessels.