Latin America the bright spot in a wildly varying market

摘要

DESPITE the global impact of the coronavirus and commodity price crash, there is wide disparity in the offshore rig market between regions and between the various types of units. North Sea jack-up rig utilisation has been "decimated" during the past three months to just 47% - although all six jack-ups in Norway are working or have a contract in place - while the semi-submersible market has been "largely unaffected" so far, analyst Westwood Global Energy Group noted in a recent webinar. However, there is a "dismal outlook" for drillships in the Gulf of Mexico. "Drilling contractors [in that market] will say 'look we're just not going back to this $150,000 [dayrate] range where we were, we'd rather stack the rig'," said Terry Childs, head of RigLogix at Westwood. He explained that the Gulf of Mexico rig market does not really operate the same way as other regions. Meanwhile, the Latin American offshore rig market remains buoyant and, while Brazil is dubbed the "main attraction", there are now nine floaters working between Suri-name, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago. Twenty-two of the 35 floating rigs in Latin America are in current employment, while a further six units have contracts lined up to start. This region has seen five new contract fixtures since mid-March, with dayrates of between $130,000 and $225,000, and Westwood expects a charter "in the $250,000 range" to be signed soon.