BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.14
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
Based on current tender activity and customer dialogues, Maersk Drilling still expects the contracting activity for drilling campaigns with commencement in 2020 to be limited, Trend reports with reference to Maersk Drilling, a drilling-rig operator based in Denmark.
While the demand pipeline for campaigns with commencement in 2021 is building, partly due to projects which were originally scheduled for 2020 now being scheduled for 2021, the company said in its report.
The increasing demand pipeline includes opportunities in the North Sea jack-up market and in the international floater market with contract durations ranging from one-well to multi-year.
To what extent the current project pipeline for 2021 will materialise into new drilling contracts is naturally subject to uncertainty.
On the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the temporary tax relief scheme approved in June 2020 is expected to fast-track certain new projects, which will generate additional demand for harsh environment jack-up rigs.
Particularly, the CJ70 jackup segment is expected to be positively impacted by the increased activity. Several rigs, mainly floaters, were scrapped during Q2 2020, but continued scrapping of rigs remains needed to rebalance the market. The continued illiquidity of the secondary market for offshore rigs with no newbuild rigs ordered, except for a few specialty rigs, prevents effective price identification for offshore drilling rigs.
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