GlobalSantaFe Worldwide SCORE Climbs Higher

HOUSTON, June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Worldwide oil and gas drilling contractor GlobalSantaFe Corporation today reported that the company's worldwide SCORE, or Summary of Current Offshore Rig Economics, for May 2006 was up 1.2% from the previous month's SCORE.

GlobalSantaFe's SCORE compares the profitability of current mobile offshore drilling rig dayrates to the profitability of dayrates at the 1980- 1981 peak of the offshore drilling cycle. In the 1980-1981 period, when SCORE averaged 100 percent, new contract dayrates equaled the sum of daily cash operating costs plus approximately $700 per day per million dollars invested. In addition to a worldwide SCORE covering key types of competitive offshore drilling rigs in key drilling markets, a separate SCORE is calculated for certain types of rigs and certain regions to indicate the relative condition of rig markets. The release, which is made available for publication on the third Monday of each month, includes separate SCORE calculations for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, West Africa and Southeast Asia.

GlobalSantaFe is one of the world's largest providers of offshore oil and gas drilling and drilling management services. We own or operate 61 marine drilling rigs, including premium and heavy-duty, harsh-environment jackups, semisubmersibles, and dynamically positioned ultra-deepwater drillships, as well as two semisubmersibles operated for third parties under a joint venture agreement. Two of the jackup rigs in our fleet currently are unavailable for contract due to hurricane damage and may not return to service. During the first quarter of 2006, we entered into a contract to build an ultra-deepwater semisubmersible scheduled for delivery in early 2009. More information can be found at http://www.globalsantafe.com/ .

For complete SCORE News Release including charts and data table, go to: http://www.globalsantafe.com/invest/press_releases/061906sc.pdf

Contacts: Investors: Media: Richard Hoffman Harmony Packard Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]
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