GSP Extends Drilling Fleet with 2 New Jackups

- GSP Extends Drilling Fleet with 2 New Jackups

Thursday, September 01, 2011
Grup Servicii Petroliere

GSP announced its drilling fleet has been extended up to seven offshore mobile drilling rigs and a modular one. GSP Britannia (ex. Britannia) and GSP Fortuna (ex. G.H. Galloway) entered GSP's fleet in August.

GSP Fortuna is an ABS class three legged independent leg cantilever jackup rig reaching the maximum drilling depth of 25.000 ft and the maximum water depth of 300 ft. GSP Britannia is an ABS class four legged independent leg cantilever jackup rig reaching the maximum drilling dept of 20.000 ft and the maximum water depth of 200 ft.

GSP Britannia will support the company's Decommissioning and Plug and Abandon services in the North Sea. GSP provides cost effective, safe and efficient P&A services for the North Sea. Decommissioning has become a highly demanded service as more and more offshore fields are reaching the end of their lives.

GSP is the single source decommissioning solution providing a full range of engineering and decommissioning services as well as turnkey solutions with focus on safety and environmental preservation. Our company's expertise is sustained in this by the most rigorous HSE standards, which GSP uses in all its projects worldwide.

GSP also operates an extended and modern fleet of construction and heavy lift vessels as well as a large variety of offshore support vessels, SAT diving & ROVs to fully answer the offshore integrated services market demands worldwide.

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About to Buck The Trend

- About to Buck The Trend

Friday, August 05, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Trey Cowan

Looking back to the second quarter, the jackup dayrate trend is down 2 percent to $106k/day versus 1Q11 rates. Floaters on the other hand did not experience any change in pricing from one quarter to the next, holding steady at $378k/day.

Commodity jackup dayrates suffered the most, down 5.6 percent to an average of $70k/day during 2Q. Standard jackup rates fell 2.2 percent to 96k/day and premium jackup rigs fell at the slowest pace of 1.6 percent to $135k/day, all on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

While the chart shows an ongoing downward trend, the future actually looks good for jackup rate improvement, based on recent activity. Jackup rates for July improved 1 percent to $107k/day, up $1,000 from June's average of $106k/day. When looking at capabilities and water depths served, premium jackups grew at a faster pace (3 percent to 139k/day) during the month. We continue to hear commentary pointing to a bifurcated marketplace with higher demand for premium rigs relative to standard 300' rigs or commodity rigs that serve in 250' waters or less.

Based on contracts already booked, dayrates for premium jackups are likely to improve 8 percent during the second half of 2011. This compares favorably to 4 percent overall growth in dayrates anticipated for jackups, which translates into an average increase of 5,000/day for jackups during the second half of 2011.

Looking solely at the rig counts, global offshore activity improved during the month of July when compared to June. There are now 543 rigs under contract around the world, up ten from last month (as both floaters and jackups added 5 rigs-a-piece to their respective rolls). The overall fleet size also grew during the month by a net five rigs (3 floaters and 2 jackups) to 756 rigs marketed globally.

Permitting in the Gulf of Mexico Year to Date

In water depths of less than 500 feet, there have been 41 "New Well" permits issued by the BOEMRE year-to-date. "Revised New Well" permits number 64 that have been issued since January 3rd 2011. The average pace for New Well and Revised New Well permit approvals appears to be 15 per month in shallow waters. In water depths of more than 500 feet there have been 12 New Well permits issued by the BOEMRE year-to-date. Since Jan. 3, 52 Revised New Well permits have been issued by the BOEMRE. Thus, the average pace for New Well and Revised New Well permit approvals for deepwater projects is 9 per month.

To put all this into perspective, combine the two averages together and you see that the BOEMRE is averaging 24 approvals per month. This is an anemic pace considering that the inspection staff of the BOEMRE is ~50 individuals and growing. That means at the current staff levels the BOEMRE's inspectors are approving either a "New Well" or "Revised New Well" at a pace of one every two months.

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Noble Adds High Specification Jackups to Fleet

Noble Adds High Specification Jackups to Fleet

Monday, March 28, 2011
Noble Corp.

Noble has exercised two of its four options with Sembcorp Marine's subsidiary Jurong Shipyard for the construction of additional high-specification heavy duty, harsh environment JU3000N jackup drilling rigs. This order will bring to four the total number of new jackup rigs the Company will have under construction.

Total delivered costs are estimated at approximately $235 million per rig, including project management, spares, and start-up costs, but excluding capitalized interest. Payment terms are consistent with the order of the two rigs placed in December 2010: 20 percent of the construction price due at contract signing, 20 percent due at steel cutting, and the remainder due at rig delivery. Unit deliveries from the shipyard are expected in the third quarter of 2013 and first quarter of 2014. The Company still has options for up to two additional units which must be exercised by January 1, 2012. As previously disclosed, the option units are priced based on the original unit price, plus a potential escalation factor, with future deliveries scheduled in six-month increments beginning in late 2014.

The Friede & Goldman JU3000N design is an enhanced evolution of the JU2000E design and represents the latest generation of high specification jackup drilling rig with greater capacities and capabilities than most existing units. The rigs, which are approximately 231 feet in length and 270 feet in breadth, will have the capability to operate in water depths up to 400 feet and drill to depths of 30,000 feet. The rigs will each have a seventy-five foot cantilever, 2.5 million pounds of hook load capacity, a high capacity mud circulating system, and a 15,000 psi blow out preventer system. The units are capable of off-line pipe handling and offer accommodations for up to 150 people.

"Noble's fleet evolution is well underway as we focus on adding rigs with superior technology, equipment, and capabilities," said David W. Williams, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Noble Corporation. "With the addition of two more JU3000N units, Noble will have four out of the eleven jackups in existence or under construction with hoisting capacities of 2.5 million pounds. We expect ultra-premium units such as these to be in high demand and look forward to serving our future customers' growing needs in this key market segment."