Company: NE-WTA
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-006184
Chunk: 8

Company: Noble Corp plc
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 8
---
 in certain situations due to a more competitive bidding environment.

The global rig supply has come down from historic highs as Noble and other offshore drilling contractors have retired less capable and idle assets. Concurrently, the incoming supply of newbuild offshore drilling rigs has diminished materially, with several newbuild rigs stranded in shipyards. However, we expect many of these stranded newbuild rigs may continue to make their way into the global market over the next few years.

Although the market outlook in our business varies by geographical region and water depth, we remain encouraged by the long-term outlook in the ultra-deepwater floater market, with overall demand having increased from 2020 lows. Our customers continue to focus on our highest specification floaters, which represents the majority of our floater fleet. While 

10

we remain encouraged about overall rig demand, to the extent global macroeconomic concerns become more prevalent, we could experience downward pressure on oil and gas prices as well as overall rig demand for both floaters and jackups.

As of the date of this report, the majority of our jackup fleet is positioned in the North Sea. While we have seen generally stable demand in the UK and southern North Sea in recent years, overall activity levels in the region remain subdued compared to historical levels. Similarly, the ultra-harsh environment jackup market in Norway also remains below historical levels despite the market being attractive to operators given it is characterized by low-cost and low-emission barrels.

Returning to the broader offshore drilling market, while there are a number of multi-year contracts out for tender, the overall market remains characterized by generally shorter-term contracts. This leads to an increased number of rig contract start-ups, both with different customers and among different regions, which may require incremental resources and costs. Additionally, this has resulted in, and is likely to continue to result in, lower overall effective utilization for our fleet driven by more idle time between contracts.

The energy transition from hydrocarbons to renewables poses a challenge to the oil and gas sector and our market. Energy rebalancing trends have accelerated in recent years as evidenced by promulgated or proposed government policies and commitments by many of our customers to further invest in sustainable energy sources. Our industry could be further challenged as resource holders and policy makers continue to evaluate and calibrate strategies and capital flows to address global energy needs. Ultimately, however, there continues to be a global dependence on products made from hydrocarbons and on the combustion of hydrocarbons to provide reliable and affordable energy. Low-cost and low-emission barrels are expected