Maersk Drilling contracts slide but market recovery in full swing
Maersk Drilling secured contracts worth ยฃ292 million in the first three months of the year.
Maersk Drilling secured contracts worth ยฃ292 million in the first three months of the year.
Shipyards are facing โbrutalโ $15.2billion (ยฃ11.6bn) losses over new-build offshore drilling rigs that no one wants, according to Bassoe Offshore.
Aker Solutions has won a long-term contract that could be worth up to $1.9billion to build and operate an entirely new type of semi-submersible drilling rig that Statoil says will make an "important contribution" to raising recovery rates from existing North Sea oil and gas fields and slashing well intervention costs.
With the end of their university programmes on the near-horizon, many engineering students are already seeking employment opportunities in the north-east's thriving offshore oil and gas drilling industries.
You'll remember that around the New Year when the 30-year-old UK Cabinet papers were released it was revealed why the then Prime Minister, one M Thatcher, opposed the idea of government investment to help build a gas gathering pipeline network which would have created thousands of new jobs in various plastics and chemical industries.