KEPPEL Corp., the world’s largest maker of rigs, led gains in Singapore and South Korean shipyard stocks on expectations that record crude will prompt more oil companies to increase orders for offshore rigs and platforms.

Keppel rose 6.2 percent, the biggest advance in almost three months, to S$11.04.

Sembcorp Marine Ltd., the world’s second-largest rig maker, added 4.8 percent to S$3.69 on the island’s stock exchange.

Keppel Corp. workers help construct an oil rig at the company’s Keppel FELSfacility in Singapore, in this file photo. Keppel Corp., the world’s biggest maker of oil rigs, received a $392-million order to build a rig for Skeie Group. --Bloomberg

Record crude prices and global economic growth are prompting oil companies to raise investments in exploration and production in deeper waters.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA this week said it discovered what may be the world’s third-largest oil field off the coast of Brazil.

“Oil-field development projects are now focused in deep waters, and there really aren’t enough equipment to support that,” said Cho In Karp, an analyst at Seoul Securities Co. in Seoul. “That means more orders for rigs and floating units.”

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., which won the biggest single contract in the industry for a floating and storage unit in December, climbed 5.4 percent to 42,850 won in Seoul.

Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world’s largest maker of drill ships, gained 1 percent to 34,100 won.

Cho has an “overweight” rating on South Korea’s shipbuilding industry.

Yards in South Korea and Singapore are the world’s leading makers of offshore equipment, including drill ships and platforms, the analyst said. (Bloomberg)

Strong peso, weak activity nip ATI’s income

ASIAN Terminals Inc. (ATI), the operator of the Manila South Harbor, reported a drop in its income in 2007 as the peso continued to rise against the US dollar and domestic activity in its flagship terminal incurred a double-digit drop.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Tension gripped a private wharf as a group of gunmen confronted elements of the Philippine Antismuggling Task Group (PASG) in a bid to take possession of more than P1 million worth of smuggled crude oil in this southern port city.

KEPPEL Corp., the world’s largest maker of rigs, led gains in Singapore and South Korean shipyard stocks on expectations that record crude will prompt more oil companies to increase orders for offshore rigs and platforms.

THE Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, fell for the first time in nine days on concerns about an economic slowdown.