Factbox On Average Offshore Rig Age

Interesting stats from Reuters on the average age of offshore oil and gas drilling rigs. Its interesting because a lot has been made of the recent order boom for offshore rigs. Looking at the below data though it suggests that new rigs are very much needed. Seadrill (SDRL) is the only company in the list with an average age below 15. Now I'm sure the rigs for Diamond Offshore (DO) still do a good job, but rigs that are over 30 years old surely can't compete with new modern rigs.

Atwoods Oceanics (ATW) has been a favorite of Stone Fox Capital for a while. The company has recently gone on a building spree [see Atwoods Oceanics Is Drilling for New Rigs]. The company has 6 new rigs on order which is impressive considering the company only has 9 ships now.

The industry clearly has an issue with aging fleets. SDRL has some appeal as an investment though they are heavily indebted.  For now we'll remain focused on the investment in ATW and sleep much better knowing the building of new rigs was a smart move as fleet ages reach extreme levels.

(Reuters) - Below are the fleet sizes and their average
ages for leading operators of offshore oil and gas drilling
rigs, not taking upgrades into account.

Operator                Rigs built    Average age (years)

Transocean  (RIG.N)        139                 25

Ensco/Pride (ESV.N)(PDE.N)  69                 22

Noble Corp  (NE.N)          62                 29

Hercules    (HERO.O)        52                 31

Diamond     (DO.N)          46                 31

Seadrill    (SDRL.OL)       45                  8

Rowan       (RDC.N)         28                 16

Atwood      (ATW.N)          9                 26

Total                      450                 24
 (Compiled by Braden Reddall)