Aban Offshore $55 Million Contract Malaysia

Two contracts secured for Deep Driller

Aban Offshore Ltd. has received letters of intent for the deployment of the jackup rig Deep Driller 2 offshore Malaysia for two separate well programs.

The first three-well program, with revenue of $17 million, has an estimated duration of 90 days in direct continuation of an existing contract.

The second contract has an estimated duration of 210 days and is for a six firm well plus one optional well program, Aban said. The estimated revenue from the contract is $38 million. The deployment is to commence in direct continuation of the first program.

Related post : Rig Market In India , Offshore Support Companies on Rise

 

Source : Oil & Gas Industry

Rig Market in India

A boom in exploration in India has tripled rig usage over the past four years, adding to a global shortage and causing delays in tapping natural gas off the Indian east coast. Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling company, may raise rig prices further after India completes the biggest auction of offshore blocks.

• With crude oil prices galloping over $ 135/bbl, increased investments in exploration and production space globally has become inevitable.However, lack of availability of rigs will continue to keep the day rates firm.  

• Rents have tripled since 2005 for new rig contracts stretching up to 2012 as explorers seek to decrease the delay between discovery and development to take advantage of high oil prices.

 

Indian Market

Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor with 82 units, made $296 million, or 10.2 percent, of total sales from India, according to its 2005 annual report. Revenue from India more than doubled since 2003, the fastest among Transocean’s main markets

Future Expetation

Reliance is paying $320,000 a day until August 2008 to rent the Deepwater Frontier rig, more than twice what the rig’s owner, Transocean, charged an earlier client, according to Transocean’s Web site. The rent is set to rise to $477,000 a day, if Reliance extends the contract in 2008 for another three years.

Riding on Market Boom :

Aban Offshore (Aban), with its 22 rigs (post acquisition of Sinvest) is well poised to leverage on the industry dynamics. Historically, Aban has clocked the highest operating margins in the industry at a global level.

Contract renewals for six of Aban’s assets (including Sinvest) are due over the next 10 months. With the current tightness in the rig market, the re-pricing of these contracts is expected to happen at significantly higher rates compared to their existing rates.

Essar Oilfields Services, a unit of Essar Shipping & Logistics, in Cyprus, paid $220 million for Transocean Wildcat, a 30-year-old offshore rig that can operate in depths of about 400 meters and capable of drilling up to 7,600 meters

 

Source : BS, Hearld, Transocean

 

Rigs demand: Offshore support companies on rise

As the quest for discovering oil hidden deep under the sea bed gathers momentum, fortune of Indian companies engaged in providing offshore support solutions to oil exploration companies have been riding high on the bourses.

 The biggest development in this sector was the announcement of NELP-VI in February 2006, under which a total of 55 blocks were offered, including 30 offshore blocks. Further, ONGC, along with its overseas arm ONGC Videsh Ltd, and ONGC Mittal Energy and Reliance Industries Ltd have been scouting for opportunities all over the world. (also see: Reliance Building Assets world over)

 OMEL has bagged two blocks in Nigeria, estimated to have reserves of about 500 million barrels each.

Considering that less than half the wells awarded since 2000 have been drilled, the demand for rigs is set to remain high in the near future. The government has decided to offer more exploration blocks under NELP VII in the coming days.

 

The higher level of exploration activity in India has increased the demand for rigs over the past few years. In 2005-06, about 35 rigs were operating in India (including jack-up rigs, drill barge, platform rigs and drill ships). This rose to 45 in 2006-07 and is expected to go up to 50 by the end of 2007-08 (These figures include ONGC-owned rigs).

Companies such as Aban Offshore, Dolphin Offshore, Garware Offshore, Jindal Drilling & Industries  and Duke offshore, apart from shipping companies such as Great Eastern Shipping that are operating in this space, have seen brisk trades at the counters in the last few weeks. Internationally, a rig could fetch a daily hire charge of about $ 3,00,000 at present,  Great Offshore a leading integrated offshore service company, had placed the order for the rig with Bharati Shipyard. Betting big on the rig, scheduled to be delivered by April 2009, Great Offshore clinched a five-year contract from ONGC for deploying it.

Source: HIndu, Rediff, News