Marine Log - November 2007 - (Page 33) BY NICK BLENKEY OFFSHOREENERGY The quest for offshore energy starts with seismic. Dubai-based Eastern Echo is building a fleet of advanced 3D seismic vessels, four in Spain and two in Dubai. They feature the Ulstein X-bow (see inset) INTO THE DEEP O rders for offshore rigs and for service vessels of all kinds keep pouring into world shipyards. In September, there were 18 drillships, 40 semisubmersibles and 40 jackups on order worldwide. The offshore drilling market is hotter than any time since the 19801981 peak of the offshore drilling cycle. One widely watched industry benchmark, GlobalSantaFe’s SCORE (Summary of Current Offshore Rig Economics) compares the profitability of current mobile offshore drilling rig dayrates to the profitability of dayrates at the 19801981 peak. The most recently published SCORE for September 2007 increased 2.4% to 139.0 from the previous month’s SCORE of 135.8. With this sort of profitability, operators have been heading for the building yards with checkbooks in hand and investors in tow. OFFSHORE RIGS IN SERVICE & ON ORDER Type Drill Ships Semi-Submersibles Jack-Ups Submersibles Drilling Barges Totals In Service Building Totals 40 18 58 167 40 207 412 64 476 7 0 7 51 0 51 677 122 799 Source: Maritime Business Strategies Singapore’s Keppel FELS delivered the KFELS B class jackup West Atlas to Seadrill on budget and ahead of time Not too surprisingly, capacity is tight. Not just for rigs, but for offshore service craft and floating production facilities of every kind. With deliveries tight at the yards that would be everyone’s most obvious choices, benefits are being felt by some old line yards that had been looking a little squeezed and by newcomers to the game. MANY YARDS BENEFIT FROM BOOM Thus Eastern Echo, a Dubai-based, Cyprus-registered new entrant to the WORLDWIDE SCORE BY RIG TYPE www.marinelog.com NOVEMBER 2007 MARINE LOG 33 http://www.marinelog.com
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