Kellock: Still more rig retirements may be needed to improve contractors’ sustainability

The current environment for offshore drilling contractors is unsustainable and, while there is a move toward a better market, improvement has proven slow in coming. Speaking at the 2019 IADC World Drilling Conference in Milan on 19 June, Tom Kellock, Head of Offshore Rig Consulting with IHS Markit, stressed that more rig retirements are needed to rebalance the market, although there are many reasons why individual companies choose not to scrap their rigs. In this video, Mr Kellock discusses his outlook for the offshore market, including why the rate of improvement has been so slow and why financial backlogs are not as meaningful as they used to be.