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Kaptonii t1_jc2f41v wrote

It’s important to note that there has been a huge push in the oil&gas industry to repurpose old rigs because it’s cheaper than building new ones. I don’t know if this data takes that into account.

My main source is me. At work, a majority of the jobs we are getting are updating old rigs and starting up abandoned ones.

Here’s an article talking about an increase in rig utilization globally. https://www.rigzone.com/news/offshore_rigs_set_for_very_busy_year_in_2023-26-jan-2023-171875-article/?amp

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Icosahunter t1_jc32y7k wrote

You're talking about oil/gas extraction though, whereas the article is talking about power production, two different (though related) things.

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AverageAustralian111 t1_jc2fmla wrote

I know almost nothing about this field, is restarting and repurposing old rigs any better than building new ones? Intuition would say yes but like I said I have no idea

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Kaptonii t1_jc2gpyh wrote

Ya, there is a huge upfront cost to building a rig (engineering hours alone are insane lol) Especially offshore rigs. Also, building a new rigs takes a long time, like several years, and these contractors want to churn out profits ASAP.

Also, most rigs are mobile. Once they are built, they can be moved to new wells. The ones that are not mobile are left there, and when new tech comes out to suck more oil out of a well, they are updated and reused.

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AverageAustralian111 t1_jc3qw6m wrote

Huh, that's really good to know. I had heard from a geopolitical analyst (my field) that oil rigs take 7 years to build and offshore takes 10 and I thought he must be exaggerating but I guess not lol.

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