It is hard to believe that we are now a year removed from the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Vaccinations are occurring at a global scale yet it is still not clear when life will return to “normal.” Depending on where you live, you may be further down the road to normal life…

Previously, I expressed my optimism in a recovering deepwater Gulf of Mexico with anticipated increased rig activity likely in 2022. There are additional factors to consider (outside of the US GOM) that can also have positive impacts on the US GOM deepwater market over the next several quarters. The level of activity in Guyana and Suriname is continuing…

One year ago today, I was very optimistic about the direction and momentum of the offshore oil and gas industry. The deepwater rig count had increased to 22 and there were fewer than four additional rigs expected to begin drilling before the year was out. Vessel day rates were trending up and by the end of…

2020 has been a year of years, and it will be interesting to see how history reflects upon this year.  So much of what we have lost this year can be contributed to COVID-19, yet even though our world has changed in enormous ways, we still find ourselves holding winning hands. Our Four Winning Hands…

The oil and gas industry is evolving into the energy industry as renewable energy sources become more widely available across developed countries. However, as G. Allen Brooks points out in his December edition of “Musings from the Oil Patch,” the dependability of renewables is proving to be quite problematic. In Western Europe in particular, this time…

November 18th marked the end US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) lease sale no. 256. This was the first lease sale since March of this year and the results provide a positive long-term outlook for the offshore oil and gas industry in the US GOM. With broad participation, the results of the lease were significantly better that…

In my last blog post, I touched on the changing oil and gas landscape due to the growing focus on net zero carbon targets. This is driving a lot of focus to the offshore wind sector. Interestingly, this is also prompting many companies to turn not just their focus but actual investments into this market as…

There has been a lot of recent news in the oil market as companies look for initiatives to reshape their business model to become energy companies and not just oil and gas companies. The most notable of these is BP with its ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.  Just in the last two weeks, they announced the…

I remain intently focused on the deepwater rig market, as even small changes in the already low deepwater rig count can have significant impacts on the OSV market. I am cautiously optimistic that we will likely not see the rig count drop below 13. Rigs have increased to 16 since last month, but forecasted analysis…

Since June, the deepwater OSV market in the US GOM has continued to soften. The count has fallen by another two rigs leaving the current, active deepwater rig count at 13. The number of deepwater OSVs that have been idled also increased by 7 during Q2. Given the outcome of Q2 and with seven deepwater vessels being stacked,…