Get a glimpse of Keppel's US$6b orders for 2013

It's a busy year ahead.

According to CIMB, the latest US$420m jack-up rigs contract from Pemex has lifted Keppel’s non-Brazilian orders to S$4.5bn YTD, above the firm's S$4bn expectations.

Here's more from CIMB:

This has reinforced our view that the non-Brazilian order momentum would continue in 2013 even without the help of Petrobras. 

Keppel has secured an order for a pair of jack-up rigs worth US$420m from Mexico’s national oil company Pemex. The rigs are scheduled for delivery in 2Q15.

Currently, Keppel is already building two jack-up rigs to be operated by Perforadora Central for Pemex. The contract was awarded in Mar 11 for delivery in 1Q13 and 1Q14.

We believe there could be orders for more jack-up rigs from either Pemex or drillers in view of the national oil company’s expansion plan. There are about 40 rigs being hired by Pemex currently.

Industry sources say that the national oil company needs about 60 jack-up rigs over the next five years. The urgency to expand has also led Pemex to enter into direct negotiations with Oro Negro on three-year charters for the Mexican company’s two newbuild KepFels B Class jackup rigs.

The rigs were acquired by Oro Negro from Jasper Offshore. We keep our order assumptions for 2013 at S$5.5bn.

There are at least US$6bn worth of orders that Keppel could be awarded from now until end-2013, including two Cat-J rigs from Statoil (US$1bn), two semi-subs from Azerbaijan’s Socar (US$1.1bn), and potentially two drilling rigs for Maersk (US$1.2bn).