Maersk Drilling Looking to Avoid Laying Up Rigs

A Maersk semisubmersible drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: Statoil

COPENHAGEN, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Maersk Drilling expects the weak market to continue in the short and medium term but still hopes to avoid laying up or cold stacking rigs and instead keeping idle rigs on standby, ready for use, Chief Executive Claus Hemmingsen told Reuters.

“We have decided to use warm stacking for a handful of rigs so they can be activated quickly again,” Hemmingsen said.

Profits at Maersk Drilling, a unit of shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk, fell by 25 percent to $164 million in the second quarter from a year earlier as major oil firms cut or postponed exploration projects as a result of the low oil prices.

Hemmingsen said he expects to avoid cold stacking as it is very costly to mothball rigs and can take more than six months and millions of dollars to prepare them again for new work.

(Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.

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