In a period of industry-wide belt tightening, oil and gas operators are finding themselves locked into long-term rig contracts without the exploration programmes to support them.
That has invigorated the sub-let market for drilling rigs, as operators look to farm out the units they cannot use in order to recoup daily losses from idle rigs.
“The farm-out market is increasing, so our customers are in effect becoming drilling contractors themselves,” Transocean chief executive Steven Newman said at a conference last month.
While
