The good news is that Seadrill has secured a two-year drilling contract offshore Angola for the semisubmersible West Eclipse, due to start in 2Q 2016. Currently the contractor's backlog totals $5.1 billion, comprising $3.9 billion for its drilling floater fleet and $1.2 billion for its jackup fleet. The average contract duration is 18 months for floaters and 13 months for jackups. The bad news is the offshore drilling market continues to be oversupplied, the contractor says, and contracting activity has sunk to levels last seen in the 1980s. As oil companies' capex continue to decline, Seadrill expects that the majority of rigs with contracts this year will not find suitable follow-on work. As a result, many will likely be idle for a prolonged period, accelerating cold stacking and scrapping activity. For the time being, oil companies will continue to work on managing their existing rig capacity, the contractor adds.
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