Offshore Comeback At Hand
U.S. oil drillers expect weaker or flat first quarter earnings but see revenues picking up later in the year as recent high oil prices trickle down to the service sector. According to sector company executives, the recovery is set to begin in the second half of this year for most, and improve markedly in 2001 as major, independent and national oil firms ramp up oil and gas exploration and production spending. "The year 2000 will be a transition year, the later we get into the year the better things will become...We troughed in the third quarter (1999)," Robert Rose, Chairman, President and CEO of offshore driller Global Marine. "But we have to wait to 2001 before we start having the kind of earnings we had in 1997…
Offshore Market Begins To Rumble
U.S. oil drillers expect weaker or flat first quarter earnings but see revenues picking up later in the year as recent high oil prices trickle down to the service sector. According to sector company executives, the recovery is set to begin in the second half of this year for most, and improve markedly in 2001 as major, independent and national oil firms ramp up oil and gas exploration and production spending. "The year 2000 will be a transition year, the later we get into the year the better things will become...We troughed in the third quarter (1999)," Robert Rose, Chairman, President and CEO of offshore driller Global Marine. "But we have to wait to 2001 before we start having the kind of earnings we had in 1997…
Offshore Market 2000: In like a lamb, out like a lion?
Though fraught with traditional starts and stops, peaks and valleys, it appears now the much-anticipated Gulf of Mexico offshore business rebound is imminent. Maybe. Much of the uncertainty surrounding the upswing of offshore activity in the Gulf of Mexico region closely parallels the unpredictable dips and turns of the price per barrel of oil itself. While those in the industry and the financial community are hardly prepared to declare the oil market free from its cyclical shackles, there has been mounting evidence that those who most directly control the market - i.e. OPEC leaders - are more determined than ever to ensure stability is the hallmark of the new millennium's oil market.
