New orders for ultra-deepwater drillship, used to lead newbuilding market in the first half 2011, has slowed down a bit in H2. However, newbuildings would resume to be sealed from the second quarter 2012.
Analyst Jun Jae-Chun from Daishin Securities said that if additional drilling is permitted next year, new order would surge from the second quarter.
Daishin's Jun pointed out that as being unable to find charterers for already ordered drillship, its new order had slowed down in H2. New order for this year covers 1.5 years, and many among 33 newbuilds have not been signed charterage.
Jun also analyzed that over $90 per barrel of West Texas Intermediate is a good reason to boost demand for subsea oil field development.
According to Jun, slow proceeding of Gulf of Mexico project caused a standstill freight and being unable to find charterers.
Development project, however, is expected to move faster from next year, and newbuilding drillship would start to be contracted from as late as Q2.