Focus on India – South Asia Rig Count Heats Up

Exploration in India has grown dramatically in the last decade through the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) program. With its first formal open exploration round in 1997, India is currently conducting its eighth bidding round for exploration and development opportunities on- and offshore the South Asian country. Prior to the open bidding process, only 11% of the country’s sedimentary basins were under exploration, and after the first seven rounds of bidding, approximately 50% of India’s sedimentary basins are under exploration.
In fact, just in the last five years, the number of rigs contracted for drilling operations offshore India has grown by 33%, with an average of 33 rigs working in 2004 and an average of 44 rigs contracted for work during 2009. Additionally, the dayrates for rigs working offshore India has increased from an average of approximately $28,000 in 2000 to an average of nearly $175,724 this year, with the competitive jackups that compose the majority of the fleet earning $129,000 per day on average.

Compared to other regions of the world, India’s jackup fleet earns similar rates but at increased lengths. While the Middle East employs substantially more jackups, with 88 rigs contracted, the average dayrate is right on par with that of South Asia. Additionally, the two regions boast the longest contracts of any other with average contract lengths spanning more than 1,000 days. With 49 jackups currently contracted, Southeast Asia, on the other hand, commands a 25% higher dayrate with an average of more than $169,000 a day for its jackups. Yet the average contract length for jackups working offshore Southeast Asia is approximately 700 days.

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