22-05-01 Houston-based offshore drilling contractor Global Marine reported that the company's worldwide SCORE, or Summary of Current Offshore Rig Economics, for April 2001 increased by 7.2 % over the previous month's SCORE, marking the 20th consecutive month-to-month increase. Global Marine Chairman, President and CEO Bob Rose said, "April's SCORE reflects the continuing improvement in key international offshore drilling markets. As these markets begin to go head to head to attract equipment away from the Gulf of Mexico, day rates will see continued upward pressure."

Global Marine's SCORE compares the profitability of current mobile offshore drilling rig day rates to the profitability of day rates at the 1980-1981 peak of the offshore drilling cycle, when speculative new rig construction was common. In the 1980-1981 period, when Global Marine's SCORE averaged 100 %, new-contract day rates equalled the sum of daily cash operating costs plus approximately $ 700 per day, per million dollars invested.
Inaddition to a worldwide SCORE covering key types of competitive offshore drilling rigs in key drilling markets, a separate SCORE is calculated for certain rig types and certain offshore drilling regions to show the relative condition of rig markets. The release, which is made available for publication on the third Monday of each month, includes separate SCORE calculations for the US Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, West Africa, and Southeast Asia. Rig types include jack up and semi submersible rigs.

Houston-based Global Marine is a major international offshore drilling contractor with one of the industry's best maintained, most diversified and technologically advanced drilling fleets. The company's 33 premium mobile drilling units include jack ups, semi submersibles and dynamically positioned ultra-deepwater drillships. In addition, the company is the world's leading provider of offshore drilling management services, including turnkey, management and daywork drilling.