ZURICH - Transocean Ltd announced on Tuesday an agreement with Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd's shipyard, Keppel FELS, to defer the delivery and related payments of five high-specification jackups until 2020.

"The Super B 400 Bigfoot Class jackup drilling rigs are now scheduled to be delivered in two and three month intervals beginning in the first quarter of 2020," it said in a statement, according to Reuters.

"We can confirm that we have reached a mutually acceptable agreement with Transocean to delay the delivery of their five rigs to 2020 and we will be compensated by Transocean accordingly," Keppel said in a statement. "The jackups were originally scheduled to be delivered from 2018-2020."

A jackup rig is a type of mobile platform with a buoyant hull and adjustable legs which can raise its hull up off the sea.

Ordered in 2013, the first rig had been scheduled for delivery during the first quarter of this year, with the other four units thereafter at four-month intervals.

Exploration companies have been deferring or cancelling orders as crude oil prices down 70 per cent since mid-2014 force them to cut costs.