Number of offshore rigs worldwide by operator 2018
Offshore oil drilling companies
As offshore oil production in the world's shallow water deposits (depths of less than 400 meters) has become increasingly exhausted, deepwater (depths of up to 1500 meters) and even ultra-deepwater (depths of more than 1500 meters) oil drilling projects have become more common and more necessary. In the first half of 2016, a total of 31 deepwater oil discoveries were made. Nevertheless, they are more expensive to develop than shallow water deposits and in the wake of the oil glut, many offshore oil projects have ceased to be viable. Many oil companies have decreased their offshore drilling activity significantly, and oil platform decommissioning activity has increased.
Less than half of the companies engaged in offshore drilling worldwide had only one rig in operation as of January 2018, where 78 companies out of a total of 139 offshore oil companies fell into this category. Pemex, short for PetrĂ³leos Mexicanos, had the most offshore drilling rigs worldwide in January 2016, at 49 rigs. Petrobras, a Brazilian multinational energy corporation, had the second-highest number of offshore oil rigs at that time, at 42. It is not surprising that one third of the global capital expenditures on deepwater oil and gas projects between 2010 and 2014 was spent in Latin America, as both of these companies are based in that region.