Marine Log - November 2007 - (Page 38) OFFSHOREENERGY ICE CLASS TANKERS behind the push into the ultra drilling contracts. Our comdeep at a recent conference in petitors did not act on their Stavanger, Norway. view unless they had a • Population and economic drilling contract.” growth are driving oil and gas It now has 10 deepwater demand newbuild projects underway • High oil prices seem likely to and says progress is basically continue as planned with so far no • Declining non-Opec oil produccatastrophes to report (“not tion, particularly in shallow even the baby brother of a water catastrophe”), though it warns • The big onshore prospects are there are still risks remaining. in politically difficult areas As of August, Seadrill had a • Remaining shallow water contract backlog of $5.2 billion prospects are mostly very from first class oil companies. small fields Its average contract dayrate Douglas-Westwood projects that deepwater capital •The remaining major offshore expenditure will hit $25 billion annually by 2012 for ultra-deepwater units is oil prospects are now in deep$511,000 a day. It has 5,413 water did build. employees and says recruitment is going With oil hitting $90 a barrel all this Since then, Seadrill has emerged as a as planned with 85% of the core crews for may seem pretty obvious now. powerful new player in the drilling mar- its first four deepwater units secured. It wasn’t always so. As recently as ket. At the Pareto Oil and Offshore ConOf course, Seadrill’s success last year 2005 when John Fredriksen started put- ference in Oslo this August, Seadrill took in beating out Noble Corporation to ting together Seadrill, the widespread evident delight in reporting that in May acquire the sizeable and long established view was that those involved in the ven- 2005, its founders took a positive view of Norwegian offshore drilling contractor ture were crazy speculators, they could- the outlook for the drilling industry. “Our Smedvig has had a lot to do with its n’t build all those rigs, no one would ever competitors took the same view. Seadrill progress. Even so, the Seadrill story award them a contract and they had no acted on their view and ordered some $5 demonstrates that nerve and timing still people and couldn’t operate any rigs they billion worth of newbuilds without play a role in the offshore adventure. ML 38 MARINE LOG NOVEMBER 2007 www.marinelog.com http://www.heisco.com http://www.heisco.com http://www.marinelog.com
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