The idling of North Sea oil rigs is occurring despite oil company pleas for lower day rates, and the practice is fast wiping away company drilling programs from the order of 2009 wells.

In the North Sea, rig giant Transocean recently cold-stacked two rigs and a source near the company’s U.K. marketing and manpower organizations told Scandoil.com that four other were likely “on the way in”. A look at the rig-owning giant's recent fleet update reports appears affirm the remarks.

“They would rather cold-stack rigs than drop the day rates,” the source said. The practice has become commonplace this year in the Gulf of Mexico, with vessels of all types awaiting the end of the downturn. But in the North Sea, the practice may be inducing rig shortage, and according to a recent article in Scandinavian Oil-Gas Magazine, Norway is already starting down a shortfall of drillers.

But the source, who wished not to be identified, said the new cold-stacking was the result of Transocean losing recent drilling contracts to lower-bidding North Sea rivals.

On Wednesday, France-based oil company Total’s boss Christophe de Margerie joked that “production is in decline, but not rig rates”. Total is a major employer of area rigs.

Transocean’s September fleet update report showed no new rigs were made idle in the North Sea, but in August the jack-up GSF Magellan was understood to be stacked in The Netherlands and a survey of rig reports appears to confirm three other rigs on U.K. assignments will be jobless beyond October 2009.

Tags: Transocean Inc.