SCORE Up for First Time in 10 Months

Houston-based worldwide drilling contractor GlobalSantaFe reported that the company's worldwide SCORE, or Summary of Current Offshore Rig Economics, for April 2002 was down from the previous month's SCORE by 0.5 percent. GlobalSantaFe President and CEO Sted Garber said, "The Gulf of Mexico SCORE hit its inflection point in April, reversing a 10-month downturn as dayrates responded to improving utilization for certain jackup rig classes. Elsewhere, while the offshore rig markets in Southeast Asia and West Africa remain moderately strong, there has been some mild erosion in jackup dayrates. We expect the dayrate declines in West Africa to abate as the Gulf rig market continues to tighten, decreasing the incentive for Gulf-based rigs to compete for work there." GlobalSantaFe's SCORE compares the profitability of current mobile offshore drilling rig dayrates to the profitability of dayrates at the 1980-1981 peak of the offshore drilling cycle. In the 1980-1981 period, when SCORE averaged 100 percent, new contract dayrates equaled the sum of daily cash operating costs plus approximately $700 per day per million dollars invested. In addition to a worldwide SCORE covering key types of competitive offshore drilling rigs in key drilling markets, a separate SCORE is calculated for certain types of rigs and certain regions to indicate the relative condition of rig markets. The release, which is made available for publication on the third Monday of each month, includes separate SCORE calculations for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, West Africa and Southeast Asia. Rig types include jackup and semisubmersible rigs.