The semi-submersible deep-water drilling rig SS Pantanal has been sold for scrap at a rig auction in China as rising steel prices proved more of a draw getting a long-idle unit back to work.

Rising rig rates and the tenacity of China’s state-owned rig rescuer SineOcean in finding managers and buyers for abandoned units, had fed suggestions that an operational use could be found for a rig originally ordered by Brazil’s now-defunct Schahin group, but this was not to be

An unnamed buyer — understood to be Global Marketing Systems (GMS) — will pay $15.08