Drilling industry humming

[Dover]

Jan. 18, 2005, 8:46AM

Drilling industry humming
With rising day rates, some offshore derricks are under construction

By NELSON ANTOSH
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

You can see it from a mile away, an oil derrick sticking up from between the jumble of metal buildings, cranes and concrete silos that line the Houston Ship Channel.


The newly built derrick, the first offshore drilling rig built here in years, is a towering sign of the revved-up oil and gas business activity in Houston.

With exploration going strong, oil and gas companies are spending big bucks to hire drilling rigs, in some cases over $200,000 a day, and those rates are rising rapidly. Just in the last six months, day rates have zoomed for drilling rigs, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, in some cases roughly doubling.

Next month the new rig will be rolled onto a barge and shipped to the Benguela Belize oil field off Angola, where it will become the first rig of its kind outside of the Gulf of Mexico.


Some see opportunities

Although some say that rates still don't justify construction of new rigs, others see opportunities, with at least 10 jack-up rigs being built in Singapore, says Kevin Neveu of National Oilwell, which is supplying the equipment for most of them. Also, about 20 land rigs are under construction today, he said. ..cont'd

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2996860

[Weembo]

1. Like Lucy with the football

Everything will seem perfect to gear up -- then CRASH -- the 1980's all over again.