Newbuilds keep shipyards busy
Jackup newbuilds top the charts in this year’s mobile offshore drilling unit survey.Offshoreresearch shows 33 newbuilds currently on the books, with options for several more likely to be exercised in the coming months.
Though yards in the US Gulf of Mexico and China have received newbuild jackup orders, Singapore has cornered the lion’s share of the newbuild contracts. Keppel FELS and PPL Jurong shipyards have taken on an enormous amount of work.
Keppel FELS, which says it has built 60% of the world’s jackups over the last decade, is likely to maintain its position as newbuild leader for the foreseeable future. The yard already holds at least 60% of the newbuild contracts.
Noble Corp. recently upgraded the Noble Jimmy Puckett jackup.
Keppel sees the growing demand for jackups, including its own KFELS Super B class rigs, as being driven by a growing interest in natural gas prospecting in deeper waters. Contractors are working to build up assets for this section, the company says, because they foresee increased operator activity that aims to ease the tight market situation in the demand and supply of natural gas in the short to medium term.
Certainly, the demand for natural gas continues to rise. In the US market alone, demand for natural gas is expected to grow by approximately 2% per year. The prices of natural gas in the US, which accounts for nearly 25% of the world’s total consumption, have doubled in the last decade and have rarely dropped below $5 in the last two years.
And new large energy consumers have entered the scene. China and India have emerged as energy hungry nations that are willing to invest heavily to meet their domestic needs.
Seeing opportunity, a large number of contractors are betting on the jackup market. Time will tell if that bet pays off.
2005 survey data
This year’s MODU survey lists 99 units. Of the vessels listed, there are 67 jackups, 26 semisubmersibles, five drillships, and one tender. The construction status of each rig is listed in a column that indicates that it has been recently completed, is under construction, or was planned between January 2004 and May 2005.
Forty-five of the units surveyed are newbuilds: 10 semisubmersibles, 34 jackups, and one tender rig. The remaining 54 units surveyed are being converted or upgraded. Of those, 33 are jackups, 16 are semisubmersibles, and five are drillships.
Fifty-one of the rigs listed were upgraded or launched between January 2004 and June of 2005. Thirteen are semisubmersibles, 37 are jackups, and one is a tender rig.
Of the remaining 48 rigs listed as “planned” or “underway” in the survey, 32 list delivery dates. Six units will be completed in 2004, eight in 2005, four in 2006, eight in 2007, five in 2008, and one in 2009. There was no completion date provided for the other 16 units.
Each listing includes the owner of the vessel, the vessel’s name if one has been assigned, the type of vessel, whether it is a newbuild or under construction (planned, underway, or recently completed), new capabilities or upgraded features if provided, the proposed completion date, and the construction yard if that information was supplied.
Most of the information presented in this survey appears as it was submitted by the participating companies.•
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