The offshore drilling services market will grow to $100Bn a year in the next few years from today’s $73.1Bn according to a report from market researchers MarketsandMarkets, creating new jobs in contract drilling, directional drilling and logging in particular.
High oil prices will sustain the confidence of oil and gas operators in making new investments while deep and ultra deep water activities will enjoy a surge to drive the market to $121.1Bn by 2018, a compound annual growth rate of 10.6%. New offshore discoveries and exponential growth in worldwide energy demand will also drive the offshore drilling sector which has been recovering from a post Gulf of Mexico oil spill slump in 2010.
The highest revenue growth over the forecast period is expected to come in the Asia Pacific region, says the report ‘Offshore drilling market by services, applications and geography – global trends and forecast to 2018’. The key markets for offshore drilling services will remain the ‘golden triangle’ of Brazil, the United States Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, although Asia Pacific is the emerging market.
Increasing maturity of onshore reserves is shifting the focus of operators towards deep water offshore activity. Offshore contract drilling holds the biggest share of the services market, 78% of total revenues in 2012, with directional drilling accounting for 18% and logging 4%. Offshore contract drilling companies are experiencing increasing day rates and a record backlog of orders, encouraging them to invest in their fleets of mobile offshore drilling units.
Photo: Kris Krug
