...depth of more than 35,000 ft, making it one of the industry’s deepest probes ever.

BP will now drill additional appraisal wells and collect information to delineate the field’s size before determining how best to develop it. Company spokesman Darren Beaudo declined to speculate on how long this process will take, given the well’s location beneath 4,132 ft of water.

“There will be a lot of conversation between us and Tiber’s co-owners, Petrobras and ConocoPhillips, but the initial results are very promising,” he says.

Fees also cites Australia’s estimated 130 trillion cu ft of natural gas reserves as being particularly attractive, given its size and proximity to strong east Asian markets. One project in development is Chevron’s proposed $32-billion Gorgon gas field and processing facility off the coast of western Australia, which will produce up to 15 million metric tons of LNG per year.

Fees says that any action on drilling for natural gas off the southeast coast of the U.S. is several years in the future. “It really depends on whether those states have the political will to do it,” he says. “Many perceptions are shaped by long-ago experiences with offshore drilling, overlooking the safer and more environmentally sound aspects of today’s technology.”

Oil and gas contractors also are watching the progress of the Obama administration’s energy bill, which could alter the petroleum sector’s landscape. Of particular interest are carbon-sequestration projects to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. In Canada, the government of Alberta is issuing $2 billion in grants for carbon-capture test projects.

“There are some opportunities that could lead to something big,” Collier says. “This will be a promising market.”

For now, contractors are hoping the return of $80-per-barrel oil prices also brings a renewed sense of stability. “We expect the next 12 to 18 months to be relatively flat,” Fees says. “Once we get into the early part of the next decade I expect we’ll see a run-up that surpasses what we experienced a few years ago.”

Stalenhoef says PCL will keep busy with its backlog of projects, but he would like to see more projects in the U.S. “There are good opportunities out there,” he says. “We just need the economy to recover.”

Jackson thinks the industry may already be seeing the light. “Some owners are talking about picking up construction again,” he says. “But they’ll be moving cautiously and prudently, so construction activity will move slowly as well.”