1.   And oil services companies have been scouring the world to buy used equipment and investing heavily in new capacity to build rigs.

2.   Consider Friede Goldman International, which builds drilling rigs and provides services for offshore exploration and production.

3.   Contract drillers are unlikely to build rigs today without having contracts lined up with producers to justify the expense, Ryan said.

4.   For years, Jacques, of Cheyenne Drilling, scoured auctions and junkyards to piece together the equipment to build drilling rigs and stay in business.

5.   Halter Marine last month said its TDI-Halter Inc. unit signed contracts with Houston-based Chiles Offshore to build the rigs.

6.   In such depths, it is impossible to build fixed oil rigs.

7.   In November Halter Marine said its TDI-Halter Inc. unit signed contracts with Houston-based Chiles Offshore to build the rigs.

8.   Now many companies that survived, still recalling those hard times, are reluctant to make the big investments needed to build new rigs.

9.   Oil drilling rigs are in short supply and building new rigs is very expensive.

10.   Oil drilling rigs are in short supply and building new rigs is consider uneconomic, even with higher rental rates.