Demand for premium jack-up rigs is set to climb with Brazil and West Africa poised to be hotbeds for deepwater drilling, offshore builder Sembcorp Marine believes
Demand for premium jack-up rigs is set to climb with Brazil and West Africa poised to be hotbeds for deepwater drilling, offshore builder Sembcorp Marine believes
The Singaporean yard also revealed that it kept firstquarter profit steady despite a slump in sales as costs were slashed.
“The fundamentals driving the offshore oil industry remain intact given the increase in the exploration and production spending budgets of major oil companies and firm oil prices,” Sembcorp wrote in an announcement to the Singapore Stock Exchange recently.
“While the world economy is showing signs of steady improvement that provides support for increasing longerterm energy demand, short-term demand may be affected by recent events in the Middle East, North Africa and Japan.”
Sembcorp contended that the market for premium jackup rigs is improving as oil companies focus “on safety and efficiency gains offered by newer and higher specification units”.
The longer term outlook is good for the offshore industry, the yard, believes, with deep-water drilling set to resume in the Gulf of Mexico following a moratorium in the wake of the Macondo blowout last year. “Deep-water drilling activities for the rest of the world are expected to increase with strong growth in demand for development drilling in Brazil and West Africa,” Sembcorp wrote.
