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"Our drilling and manufacturing busi- nesses continue to reach new heights and our near-term outlook remains very favorable," said Danny McNease,

Chairman and CEO. "Our drilling fleet is effectively fully utilized and our back- log of contracts continues to grow. Nine of our 20 offshore rigs currently have commitments that extend into 2007 or beyond, and we are aggressively pursu- ing additional long-term drilling assign- ments at favorable rates. Rowan's aver- age offshore day rate worldwide is cur- rently around $134,000 or more than 28 percent higher than our average during the fourth quarter. Absent a significant change in market fundamentals, we believe that the global competition for quality rigs will intensify in 2006 and that the upward pressure on day rates will continue."

BP Selects Telenor for

Global Communications

Telenor Satellite Services signed a three-year communications agreement with British Petroleum (BP) for global broadband services over satellite. The two-part agreement, including Telenor land-based and Sealink at-sea broad- band communications services, is one of the largest of its kind in terms of num- bers of sites, vessels and systems includ- ed. The contract establishes the terms and conditions for upgrading the com- munications systems of ships and pro- duction facilities, as determined by BP, and has the potential of providing cost- efficient and highly reliable very small aperture terminal (VSAT) equipment and services to BP's entire fleet, which will surpass 80 deep sea vessels by the end of 2006, and several offshore rigs and land-based production facilities.

Approximately 20 vessels are slated to have Telenor's Sealink services by the end of 2006. The pact with Telenor is part of BP's modernization and fleet expansion program. As part of this pro- gram, BP is providing all of the compa- ny's vessels and production facilities with state-of-the-art, always-on voice and data communications for business operations as well as for crew morale and welfare. Incorporating a variety of global satellite communications tech- nologies, satellite systems, and commer- cially available equipment, Telenor will deliver a wide range of broadband solu- tions that operate using fixed installa- tion and transportable very small aper- ture terminal (VSAT) equipment for

BP's ships and facilities at speeds up to 2 megabits per second and beyond.

Telenor will use its teleport facilities in Norway and the U.S. to support this global communications agreement with

British Petroleum.

Kongsberg Wins Offshore

Contracts

Kongsberg Maritime won a contract to deliver integrated control systems for safety and automation to the floating production vessel being used to operate

BP Norge's Skarv and Idun fields on the

Haltenbanken. The field is scheduled to come online in 2010 for oil and gas pro- duction. The contract initially covers a

FEED (Front End Engineering and

Design) study conducted jointly with

BP Norge and Aker Kværner, where

Kongsberg Maritime will be responsible for the safety and automation systems (SAS). The study is part of the material to be submitted for final approval by the authorities in spring 2007. Kongsberg contract will potentially have a duration of five years.

April 2006 31

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