Rise of the stranded rigs – a perspective on rig intake
During the boom of the upstream oil & gas industry a decade ago, the order book for new-build rigs was full and shipyards in the Far East were building and commissioning at a pace never seen before. Then we hit a major industry-wide downturn in 2015 and then another in 2020, and the demand for new-build rigs disappeared almost entirely. Today, against the backdrop of the current rig demand supercycle, focus is on increasing utilisation of current fleets and orders for new-build rigs have not materialised… yet.