Noble sees ‘encouraging uptick’ for deepwater rigs

The level of conversation related to contracting activity has picked up significantly in recent months, according to offshore drilling contractor Noble’s CEO Robert Eifler.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the company has rigs operating in Brazil, Colombia and Guyana.

Eifler pointed to an “encouraging uptick” with a demand boost expected in late 2025, early 2026, highlighting that Noble is seeing a very large dataset of open tenders, FIDs and subsea tree orders.

He said that among the markets with the greatest growth potential are those in the golden triangle (Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, West Africa), such as South America, particularly Caricom, including Suriname’s expected build-out in 2026-27.

The executive stated, however, that there is some “white space” forecast for the first half of 2025 due to an overall general lack of urgency to drill now driven by capital discipline.

Among Noble’s latest regional developments was the award of 4.8 years of additional rig years for the Tom Madden, Sam Croft, Don Taylor and Bob Douglas rigs under the commercial enabling agreement with ExxonMobil for Guyana.

Noble’s latest fleet status report is available in the Documents box in the top right corner.