The offshore oil and gas industry has added two drillships and one semisubmersible to the global fleet over the last two weeks, boosting the global mobile offshore drilling flotilla to 823 units.

Utilization edged higher to 80.8% as of Dec. 9 even as the number of contracted units grew by seven to 665 total, according to ODS-Petrodata.

New drillship additions include delivery to Deep Sea Metro Ltd.’s Deepsea Metro II at the end of November. The sixth generation ultra-deepwater (UDW) drillship was manufactured by Hyundai Heavy Industries and is the second of two units Deep Sea Metro ordered for 2011. The first, Deepsea Metro I, was delivered in June.

Norway’s Odjfell Drilling will operate the Deepsea Metro II, which commenced drilling for Petrobras in offshore Brazil. The drillship features several green, rig features including zero discharge.

But additional floaters are only part of the news flow in the last couple of weeks. The manufacturing sector held its own in the parade of offshore headline news, which lends additional proof that expectations for a coming up-cycle in the offshore sector remain on target.

Notably, FMC Technologies racked up four contracts for deepwater subsea projects over the last 30 days as the subsea manufacturing sector gained momentum. The Houston-based firm was awarded a contract to supply subsea equipment for BP’s Block 18 deepwater project in offshore Angola, including subsea trees, control systems, wellheads and related equipment. The package will be manufactured in Scotland and delivered to BP in 2013.

Also, FMC and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. signed a global alliance agreement in which FMC will provide subsea systems and ‘life-of-field’ services for Anadarko’s worldwide offshore efforts. Both firms had been involved in a pre-existing alliance for Anadarko’s Gulf of Mexico efforts since 1992 (including Anadarko’s corporate predecessors).

The Houston-based independent has expanded its deepwater efforts globally with recent successes in Brazil’s Campos Basin, West Africa, and Mozambique complementing significant discoveries in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. In Mozambique, Anadarko boosted its estimate of resource in place to between 15 and 30 Tcf of natural gas at the end of November after encountering of 662 net feet of pay in two reservoirs through the Barquentine-3 appraisal well.

FMC followed the Anadarko contract by announcing LLOG Exploration Co. LLC awarded the firm a $40 million subsea equipment contract to supply FMC-manufactured production systems for LLOG’s Who Dat project in the Gulf of Mexico. FMC will design and manufacture the equipment in Houston with deliveries scheduled for 2012.

The flurry of announcements makes FMC Technologies “exhibit one” for a rapidly revitalizing offshore market. The Houston firm was also awarded a $325 million subsea systems contract for Chevron’s Wheatstone Project in offshore Australia just a day before announcing the Anadarko alliance.

The Chevron award calls for FMC to supply 11 subsea production trees, 11 wellheads, three manifolds and subsea and topside control systems for Chevron’s Wheatstone and Iago gas fields in water depths of 330 to 850 feet off the coast of Western Australia. Deliveries are planned to begin in 2013.

The BP, Chevron and Anadarko awards are part of a burgeoning renaissance in subsea equipment manufacturing. There are a score of large projects on the boards in West Africa, Brazil and Australia that represent more than $8 billion in potential subsea tree awards over the next year-and-a-half.

Quest Offshore has identified new contracts for 64 subsea trees during the third quarter 2011, up 10 sequentially versus the second quarter. Subsea tree awards in 2011 had been significantly lower on a year-to-date basis versus both 2009 and 2010. The third quarter uptick suggests momentum is building with a large tranche of awards expected in the fourth quarter as a prelude to an even stronger 2012.

Furthermore, it’s not just deepwater that’s generating newbuild excitement in the offshore market. Expanding business conditions are evident across the offshore market as illustrated when Hornbeck Offshore Services last month announced a $720 million newbuild program for 16 offshore supply vessels (OSVs). Hornbeck expects to deliver the units in the 2013-14 time frame.

Once completed, the units will boost Hornbeck’s supply fleet to 67 next-generation OSVs. The company currently markets a fleet of 80 OSVs. The 16 units are part of Hornbeck’s fifth newbuild program and focus on technologically advanced, environmentally friendly designs, including double hulls and EPA Tier 3 emissions standards on propulsion systems while featuring greater deadweight capacity, larger deck space, and expanded fluid carrying capacity.

Offshore