Market reports indicate ENSCO, plc and Noble Corporation are close to signing long-term floating rig contracts in the Gulf of Mexico. Indications are that BP will charter newbuild drillship ENSCO DS-6 for a multiyear (believed to be five-to-seven years) contract starting in the first-half of 2012. The rig is scheduled for delivery from Samsung Shipyard in South Korea in December. Further rumors are that Noble will sign semi Noble Jim Day to a new multi-year deal with Shell starting in February 2012. The rig is currently working for the operator under a one-year deal that began in February. Shell also has contracts in the Gulf with Noble for semis Noble Danny Adkins, Noble Driller and the Noble Jim Thompson, and is due to pick up newbuild drillships Noble Bully I and Noble Globetrotter I later this year and in early 2012. Details of the new contracts will be reported once they are wrapped up. Meanwhile, BP and Petrobras have finalized a sixmonth sublet of newbuild drillship ENSCO DS-3, and the rig is now underway to Angola. The rig is scheduled to work there until mid-2012, after which it likely will return to the US Gulf. ENSCO’s contract with BP runs ...

Total mobile rig utilization in the Gulf of Mexico is down this week as one rig departed the area. Currently, 62 of 114 rigs are under contract or committed for work for utilization of 54.4%. Marketed utilization, which excludes cold stacked and other rigs here but not marketed in the US Gulf, is now 91.2% with 62 of 68 rigs under contract.

Utilization of the jackup fleet is unchanged from last week. Overall fleet utilization is 47.4% with 36 of 76 units under contract or committed for work. Marketed utilization remains at 85.7% with 36 of 42 units contracted.

Floating rig utilization increased this week. A contracted ENSCO drillship left for Angola, accounting for the change. Current fleet utilization is 81.3% with 26 of 32 units under contract, while marketed utilization remains at 100% with all 26 units under contract.

Total platform rig fleet utilization is still 44% with 22 of 50 units under contract. Marketed utilization stands at 62.9% with 22 of 35 units under contract or committed for work.

Inland barge utilization increased overall this week as several units went on and came off contract. Total utilization rose to 50.8% with 30 of 59 units contracted. Marketed utilization ...

Diamond Offshore has signed a deal with ExxonMobil Corporation to take semi Ocean Victory for a four-well P&A program in the Zinc field in Mississippi Canyon Block 354. Work is expected to last for 105 days and will begin between January 1 and April 15, 2012, depending on when work with Walter Oil & Gas Corporation is completed. It is further understood ExxonMobil could have additional drilling work for the rig upon completion of the P&A program. The rig is currently working for ATP O&G in Green Canyon Block 299 and is next scheduled to go to the Walter work in Ewing Bank Block 834 in late November, with operations scheduled to last 45 days. Walter has also picked up previously idle semi Ocean Saratoga for a 21-day well in Viosca Knoll Block 821. The rig, which had been idle since late September, began mobilizing to location from Galveston, Texas, on November 13. Work will be completed in early December. Diamond also reports that jackup Ocean Titan has departed the AmFELS yard in Brownsville, Texas, for Mexico, where it has a 777-day contract with Pemex starting later this month. Semi Ocean Yorktown will depart the same yard in late November, ...

Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc. (TODDI) has filed a motion for summary judgment in the U.S. Eastern District Court in Louisiana requesting the court to force BP to honor its contractual obligation to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Transocean for damages associated with BP’s failure to contain flow from its Macondo well in 2010. Transocean says BP has refused to honor its contractual obligations despite what Transocean says is the industry-standard reciprocal indemnity provisions contained in the drilling contract. The original contract was signed in 1998 and extended several times up to and including in 2009. Language in the contract says BP will “defend, release, protect, indemnify and hold harmless” Transocean for any and all fines, penalties and damages associated with environmental pollution originating from the well “without limit and without regard to the cause or causes” including negligence, “whether such negligence be sole, joint, active, passive or gross.” The motion also asserts that after months of discovery and over 200 witness dispositions, it was clear that no evidence of gross negligence by Transocean existed. BP filed suit against Transocean on the one-year anniversary of the incident, alleging that Transocean personnel had willful and callous disregard for the welfare of ...

Reports are that Rowan Companies newbuild jackup Rowan EXL-IV may have a signed contract in place by the end of this week. While the potential customer is not known, market intelligence indicates Apache Corporation could be the operator getting the rig. The LeTourneau Super 116-E design rig, delivered from the Keppel AmFELS yard in Brownsville, Texas, on September 1, is currently undergoing systems testing while waiting on work and is expected to leave the yard in October.

Hall-Houston Exploration finally received its permit and now has jackup Hercules 212 on location in High Island Block 205. The ADTI turnkey well is expected to take around 30 days to complete. Meanwhile, jackup Hercules 214 has wrapped up operations for Apache Corporation in Main Pass Block 69 and is now on standby while it waits for its next contract to begin. That work will be for Phoenix Exploration Company, LP in nearby Main Pass Block 59 on a job that was switched from jackup Hercules 253. That rig is also on standby in West Cameron Block 38 while it waits to begin a threewell, 120-day contract with Hall-Houston, now expected to be in early October. Tana Exploration Company, LLC will then ...

Total mobile rig utilization in the Gulf of Mexico inched upward this week, as one new rig was delivered without a contract and one previously idle rig received a contract. Currently, 59 of 117 rigs are under contract or committed for work, for utilization of 50.4%. Marketed utilization, which excludes cold stacked and other rigs here but not marketed in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, stands at 83.1%, with 59 of 71 rigs under contract.

Within the jackup fleet, overall fleet utilization is now 41.6%, with 32 of 77 units under contract or committed for work. One Rowan newbuild jackup was added to the rig rolls without a contract, while a previously idle ENSCO, PLC unit received a contract. Marketed utilization is now 74.4%, with 32 of 43 units contracted.

Floating rig utilization saw no change this week. Current fleet utilization is now 79.4%, with 27 of 34 units under contract. Marketed utilization remains at 96.4%, with 27 of 28 rigs under contract.

Total Platform rig fleet utilization increased with the removal of two units from supply and an idle Nabors Offshore unit receiving a contract. Currently, 23 of 50 units are under contract, for utilization of ...