Equinor and its partners Ineos E&P and Faroe Petroleum have made an oil and gas discovery in exploration well Snadd Outer Outer/Black Vulture in production license 159B in the Norwegian Sea. The well had two different reservoir targets; an upper drilling target containing 2-12 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of gas and a lower target with an estimated volume of 1-48 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

Trendsetter Engineering Inc. announces that they have been awarded a contract to provide Shell Exploration and Production, Inc. with an order of TC2 Collet Connection Systems.

NOIA Vice President for Government and Political Affairs Tim Charters issued the following statement in response to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) new regional offshore wind leasing strategy: 

On behalf of the Johan Sverdrup license, Equinor is awarding the contract for subsea pipelines and associated marine operations in the second project phase to Subsea 7. This will increase the share of contracts awarded to Norwegian suppliers in phase 2 of the Johan Sverdrup project to 85%.

Well construction specialist, DeltaTek Global, has announced the successful completion of its first SeaCure deployment for Total E&P UK.

RINA, one of the leading ship classification societies, has announced the release of a new, tamper-proof, version of its electronic logbook (ELB). This innovative tool is the first of its kind to employ blockchain technology to provide a secure, traceable record of ship data for shipping companies wishing to fully demonstrate their commitment to integrity and transparency across all operations.

Cleansorb, a leading provider of patented chemical well treatments that enhance hydrocarbon production for the international oil and gas industry, has announced that following a series of successful ORCA™ for OBM treatments on offshore oil production wells and a water injection well drilled with OBM, increased production and water injectivity have been achieved on behalf of a major operator in the Middle East.

MacGregor, part of Cargotec, and Kongsberg Maritime have entered into an agreement where MacGregor will deliver an automated mooring system for the world's first autonomous container ship, Yara Birkeland. This will enable mooring operations to be undertaken without human intervention and supports effective operation of the fully electric, zero emission vessel. 

Fugro has successfully completed the first of three Malaysian seep hunting and geochemical campaigns for the Provision of Surface Geochemical Survey for Domestic Waters for Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), Malaysia’s fully integrated oil and gas company.

Trelleborg’s marine and infrastructure operation was recognized with an award at the Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB’s (LKAB) annual supplier day, held in Dalian, China. The award recognizes the performance of Trelleborg’s high-performance mill wear equipment, which since 2017, has facilitated continuous improvement for LKAB across plant management, manufacturing processes, environment, health and safety, and social responsibility.

OSM Maritime has announced that it has secured a contract for the full technical management of Hunter Group’s state-of-the-art fleet of eco design SMART VLCCs, currently under construction at DSME in Korea. Hunter Group has eight identical 336m vessels, set to be delivered towards the end of 2019 and into 2020. The Hunter vessels will be managed from OSM’s base in Arendal, Norway, which offers an established strength in specialist tanker services. 

Ocean Specialists Inc. (OSI), announces the completion of a series of seabed characterization projects that involved geophysical and geotechnical surveys at selected locations in the Gulf of Mexico and Western Atlantic.

Westwood’s Matt Adams summarizes the very latest advancements in rig analytical tools and activity forecasting.  

Today a new white paper has been released by Westwood Global Energy Group (WGEG) to mark the launch of a new interactive forecasting tool for the global offshore rig market, the result of a round of significant investment by WGEG. RigOutlook, previously confined to a biannual PDF report, now gives users the ability to see forecast demand, supply, utilization, and day rates on a global and regional basis covering the next five years. The newly-released white paper is intended to give you an introduction to Riglogix’s newest offering and highlight some initial outputs, as well as outlining the methodologies, limitations, and considerations.

Historic Leading Day Rates by Rig Type and Date of Award, 1st Jan 2010-1st June 2019. Line is Generated using GAM Smoothing. Source: RigLogix / RigOutlook 

While there have been improvements in the offshore rig market in the last 12-18 months, utilization remains well below the 2010-14 average of c.76% – the last ‘up-cycle’ seen in the industry. A total of 460 MODUs were working globally in May 2019, the highest level of activity since May 2016 (466 rigs working). Over the same period, supply has decreased due to 207 MODUs being removed from the fleet, although 101 newbuild deliveries have also been made.  Global utilisation across the total MODU fleet now stands at 59%, 12 percentage points higher than the lows of February 2017. Higher utilisation across the fleet has started the processes of increasing the day rate set for new contract awards (‘leading edge day rate’), although these effects are no doubt more notable in more niche markets such as the Norwegian North Sea.

While there remain some regional markets which continue to be challenged, the rig market as a whole appears to have emerged from one of the worst downturns in its history. Over the coming months and years, demand is expected to continue to increase as a backlog of delayed projects continues to be worked through, and aging, under-spec rigs continue to be retired. Whilst, even in the most optimistic scenario, it seems unlikely that the offshore rig market will return to the heights of the previous upturn, there should no-doubt be cautious optimism.

For more insights on the global offshore rig market, as well as an introduction to the methodology, considerations and limitations of Westwood’s new RigOutlook forecasting tool, request access to the RigOutlook white paper now using the form below.

Matt Adams, Senior Analyst, Rigs & Wells, Westwood Global Energy Group

Please complete the form below to receive the PDF download link.

By downloading this white paper, you agree to the Terms and Conditions of use as set out here. Only business email addresses are accepted and Westwood reserves the right to refuse delivery.

Winner of this years’ annual Underwater Technology Foundation’s UTC Subsea Award for outstanding achievements within the subsea industry, is Saab Seaeye.

Ole Martin Grimsrud has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of Aker Solutions, effective August 1, 2019. He replaces Svein Oskar Stoknes, who is taking over as CFO of Aker ASA on the same day.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP announces the sanction of the MJ project (also known as D55) in Block KG D6, offshore the east coast of India.