Contracts signed by drilling companies in Feb-08 suggests that 30 year old rigs can earn $500,000 per day

Gridstone Research covers 15 drilling companies within its current coverage universe of 137 oil and gas companies. Some of the drilling companies report deals struck for new rigs and new contracts on old rigs on a regular basis. This note makes an effort to look at the impact of the contracts on the earnings that these drilling companies will report in the future, during the tenure of the contract. read more…

Upstream oil and gas (E&P) companies in the past have benefited from high crude oil prices. Thus, it would be reasonable to assume that most E&P companies should benefit from the rapid and unprecedented rise in crude oil prices to $100 per barrel in the recent past. However, our analysis of recent reported performance (Sep-07) shows that for a variety of reasons, this is not the case for a number of E&P companies. The average of the monthly price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude at Cushing Oklahoma as reported by the Department of Energy, U.S. (DOE) rose $5.1 per barrel or 7.25% y/y to $75.48 per barrel during the Sep-07 quarter. Despite this, some of the upstream companies have reported lower revenue during the Sep-07 quarter. read more…