A $600m drillship is set to go under the auctioneer's hammer once more in the UK.

Admiralty broker CW Kellock said the 61,600-gt Sertao (built 2012) will be sold in Port Talbot on 14 January.

In March, the vessel was put up for sale again after its move to the Welsh port.

It was shifted from Tilbury as Platform Brokers (PB) sought a buyer.

The seller at that time was reported as Dleif Drilling, a US-registered company, which took possession of the vessel after a court order in Brazil.

The drillship used to be owned by Brazil’s bankrupt Schahin Group and was on long-term charter to Petrobras.

In late 2015 the ship headed from Brazil to England for layup.

It was arrested in Teesport by the UK admiralty marshal and then moved to Tilbury.

Dleif had brought in Okeanos and V.Ships to manage the vessel , with PB and Pareto Offshore to look for future employment for it.

Okeanos told local media at the time there had not been much interest in the unit.

TradeWinds had earlier that a unique dual-broker approach to a UK admiralty court auction for the drillship was agreed by Deutsche Bank (DB) after it tried to bring in its own shop for the sale.

A court ruling revealed that DB wanted to cut out traditional admiralty broker CW Kellock, which has been carrying out such sales for more than 150 years.

DB, as the vessel mortgage holder, had argued that its choice, Pareto Offshore, had the relevant experience in such a specialised sale and purchase market.

But the admiralty marshal had objected to Pareto handling the sale for several reasons.