As pemex looks to projects in deeper waters, it must vie with tight floater demand worldwide

THE MEXICAN GULF of Mexico has been a lucrative market for offshore drilling contractors for a number of years, and for a number of reasons. First, it is very close to the presently lackluster US Gulf (the same body of water, actually) so it is not overly expensive to mobilize a jackup to the region. Second, it is lucrative in terms of dayrates compared with the US Gulf, and it is about to become even more profitable for contractors that operate the few semisubmersibles there as contracts will potentially roll over to new and dramatically higher-paying drilling contracts.