Houston-based offshore drilling contractor Global Marine's worldwide SCORE, or Summary of Current Offshore Rig Economics, for December 2000 increased by 3.7 percent over the previous month and by 49.7 percent compared to a year ago.
Global Marine Chairman, President and CEO, Bob Rose said, "Offshore drilling markets enjoyed significant recovery in both utilization and dayrates during 2000.
With E&P company budgets nearly 20 percent higher, the outlook for 2001 is very bullish -- particularly for jackup rigs which may revisit 1997 highs."
Global Marine's SCORE compares the profitability of current mobile offshore drilling rig rates to the profitability of rates at the 1980-81 peak of the offshore drilling cycle, when speculative new rig construction was common.
In the 1980-1981 period, when Global Marine's SCORE averaged 100 percent, new-contract dayrates equaled the sum of daily cash operating costs plus approximately US$700 per day per million dollars invested.
In addition to a worldwide SCORE covering key types of competitive offshore drilling rigs in key drilling markets, a separate SCORE is calculated for certain types of rigs and certain regions to indicate the relative condition of rig markets.
Regions include the US Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, West Africa, and Southeast Asia. Rig types include jackup and semisubmersible rigs.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
