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,…
Since mid-March, when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and Saudi Arabia initiated an oil price war, the industry has been anticipating a precipitous short-term decline in deepwater activities. Though WTI has crept up into the high $30 range, even eclipsing $40 briefly, we are now seeing the effects of the plunge in oil prices on deepwater…
The recent collapse of oil to below zero was not driven by fundamentals in the supply and demand of oil. Rather, it was a function of oil traders and speculators having to sell their way out of a badly timed trade. The speculators that own oil delivery contracts have no intent of taking delivery of…