Re:Robots Are Taking Over Oil Rigs
by pizzetta on Tuesday January 24, 2017 @01:43PM
(#13474204)
I don't know much about this industry --as in I know nothing, but I think some of the costly parts are "exploration rights" as well as regulatory hurdles and costs. If you own some land with mineral rights, then you can do some of this but if you don't have land then obtaining that land and getting permission to explore is not a trivial task, I think.
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I see, so the regulatory hurdles to even get started are more of an expense than labor and equipment?
No. For offshore, the major expense for the driller is in the drilling rig or drillship which can cost upwards of $1B. For the operating company, it is the dayrate that the driller charges the operator which can be from $75k/day to $450k/day. Onshore rates are <$20k/day currently for Tier 1 rigs.
The offshore leases are expensive, but in the economic models they are not the primary driver of costs associated with the project. Same goes for onshore, but with less cost for the land rights and fewer regulatory hurdles.
https://www.ihs.com/products/oil-gas-drilling-rigs-offshore-...
https://rigdata.com/rigdata-insights/blogpost?BlogName=plumm...