The Most Overlooked Winner in Offshore Oil
Less visible than its Western peers, but structurally far stronger.
Introduction
In my last piece, I laid out why offshore drilling is back on the table.
Tight supply, rising day rates, and years of underinvestment have finally tilted power back toward the rig operators. But let’s be honest: this is still one of the most unforgiving industries out there. When the cycle turns, it doesn’t just punish, it destroys. Rising day rates can easily double your equity. Falling day rates can wipe it out.
But what if there were a way to get exposure to the same cycle without betting everything on one lever? One company flies under the radar, operating with a de facto monopoly at home. It doesn’t just drill. It controls the full offshore service stack—rigs, well services, marine logistics, geophysics. This diversification, combined with political backing and strategic relevance, gives it insulation most of its peers can only dream of. During the 2015 collapse, when nearly every Western driller was filing for bankruptcy or scrapping rigs, this company kept working.
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