Low levels of contracting activity for the offshore drilling market are expected to continue, according to Norway’s Fred Olsen Energy (FOE) in its latest outlook for the global market.

While the company saw an increase in the number of drilling fixtures in the second quarter of this year the company says the level of activity is still low. “An increase [in the] number of idle rigs is seen, predominantly in international mid-water and deepwater markets,” FOE reported in a presentation with its second quarter results.

For the Norwegian floating drilling sector, the company sees shorter-term exploration demand.

But for the longer term, FOE says it expects to see floating rig demand for both exploration and field development operations, and it reports several development requests for projects in 2016 and 2017. Currently the company reports a US $4 billion contract backlog.

In the global ultra-deepwater sector, FOE took delivery in February of the Bolette Dolphin, a newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship, which has a four-year contract with Anadarko, operating internationally.

In its second quarter results Fred Olsen, the owner of Dolphin Drilling, reported that the Bolette had achieved a successful startup in its first drilling operation offshore Liberia in May and has since commenced a campaign off the Ivory Coast.

The Belford Dolphin, meanwhile, is on a four-year contract with Anadarko and has been operating offshore Mozambique. A five-year class renewable survey on the unit is due in the first quarter of 2015.

Another newbuild harsh environment ultra-deep semisubmersible, Bollsta Dolphin, is committed to a five-year contract with Chevron drilling west of Shetland and is due to be delivered in the third quarter of 2015. The Bollsta Dolphin is due to drill development wells on the deepwater Rosebank field for Chevron, although the operator is currently reviewing the estimated overall project costs.

Out of its mid and deepwater fleet, FOE reports that the Borgny Dolphin completed a five-year contract with Petrobras in early June and has since mobilised back to Invergordon, Scotland.

Fred Olsen’s Blackford Dolphin, which had its one-well contract with Cairn Energy to drill off the west coast of Ireland this summer cancelled due to a late startup after a US $210 million class renewal survey at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, is now committed elsewhere: The rig has just started a single well for MPX Energy in the UK North Sea, and will then go on a nine-month contract with Nexen followed by a 572-day deal with Chevron, which has options to extend the rig by 300 and 700 days.

Offshore