Essar Oilfields Services, which provides drilling services to oil and gas companies across the globe, sees its revenue more than double to $48 million in the current fiscal on new orders from state-run explorer ONGC and some private-sector players who are reviving their capital expenditure plans.
A fully-owned subsidiary of Essar Shipping, Essar Oilfields owns and operates 15 land rigs and one offshore semi-submersible rig. The company had reported $18 million in revenue in 2016-17.
“We are expecting to clock a revenue of over $48 million in the current fiscal, of which $18 million will be generated by its fleet of land rigs, while $30 million will be generated by the Essar Wildcat, an offshore semi-submersible rig currently contracted to ONGC,” Rajeev Nayyer, chief executive officer at Essar Oilfield Services, told ET. “The revenue projection is conservative as some other land rigs are in the process of being employed on fresh drilling contracts.”
Nayyer said the company expects some longterm contracts from state-run ONGC and a few private players. Earlier this month, Essar Oilfields started a new contract for Mercator Petroleum with the drilling of the first well, Jyoti 8, in the latter’s block in the Cambay Basin.
The drilling industry across the world had been seeing a slowdown as global energy majors cut capital expenditure, tracking the decline in crude oil prices. But drilling activity picked up in 2017 as crude prices