Page 9: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Nov/Dec 2022)

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he drillship market is close to sold out at 94% anticipates continued momentum in 2023. marketed utilization, with leading-edge dayrates The tightness in drillship and jackup capacity will be now hitting the mid-$400,000 range in both ampli?ed next year as the demand outlook for these rigs

T the US Gulf of Mexico and Brazil. The tightness is strong. Westwood’s RigLogix records a total of approxi- within the market has already led to nine drillships being mately 40 years of unful?lled ?oating rig (semi and drill- reactivated (2021-present) from cold stack and even a few ship) requirements and around 93 years of jackup require- stranded newbuilds ?nally landing their ?rst drilling gigs. ments that have a start date in 2023.

Similarly, for jack-ups, urgency for capacity from National This high demand is expected to not only soak up the

Oil Companies (NOCs), especially in the Middle East, has remaining active available supply in the market, but also transformed the supply/demand balance within this market additional newbuild units as well as cold-stacked tonnage and, like the drillship ?eet, has led to long-idled newbuilds that will require reactivation (see Figure 2). ?nding work and 25 rig reactivations since 2021. As a result, However, commissioning a newbuild/stranded asset or rig owners have also realized substantial dayrate increases. reactivating an idle one is not a cheap or quick process. It is

The semi ?eet has had a slower recovery, largely due to understood that pricing for a drillship reactivation is now lackluster demand from the North Sea. Nevertheless, rig $100 million or more and is likely to take 1-2 years to com- owners have seen increases in utilization, and dayrates and plete. This challenge may lead to some operators consider- marketed utilization now sits at 80%. ing chartering a semi instead of a drillship where possible.

Extra capacity will be required Dayrates will move higher still

With the rig market recovery well underway, Westwood This rising demand, coupled with a shrinking supply of

Figure 1

Source: RigLogix, Westwood Analysis november/december 2022 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 9