When Pride International
At the time, one piece of supporting evidence was a strong, multiyear dayrate awarded to Transocean
Noble, a skillfully run independent E&P that I don't say nearly enough about, has hired Transocean's ultra-deepwater Sedco Express for a 15-month stint at roughly $530,000 per day. The drilling location was not disclosed.
This dayrate is slightly better than in the aforementioned Petrobras award, and 65% higher than Pride's piddling per diem. That's one reason I'm comfortable calling Pride a "deepwater B-lister."
Before you start projecting half-million-dollar dayrates out as far as the eye can see, it's important to consider that deepwater capacity is quite tight in 2010. Newbuilds ordered up by the likes of ENSCO International