Offshore support vessels have rounded off a tough 2017 with a rise in the global number of drilling rigs, one of the ships’ most important employers.

December’s 3.4% month-on-month increase in working rigs follows 2017’s largest decline of 10.1% in November.

This 3.4% rise is also slightly larger than many of the monthly percentage changes for all of last year, either up or down, although one of the largest increases was in September with 8.6%.

While any rise in working offshore rigs is welcome news for OSV owners, the count for December 2017 is still nearly 19% lower than the tally for the same month in 2016.

The global market had a total of just 211 working offshore rigs in December, up from 204 in November but down on 235 in December 2016, according to the latest monthly update from US oil-services company Baker Hughes.

The most recent gain of seven working rigs represents increased demand for potentially between 21 and 28 OSVs, although ship-to-rig ratios have varied during the downturn.

For context, just prior to the downturn, Baker Hughes listed 369 working offshore rigs in December 2013, which points to vanished demand in drilling support only to the tune of about 630 OSVs.

Two of the seven tracked global regions held firm and only two had fewer rigs at work in December than in November, according to Baker Hughes.

Asia Pacific was unchanged at 83 working rigs, although this was about 4.6% lower than the same month in 2016, while Canada remained at one working rig.

The US Gulf of Mexico and Africa fell by just one rig each.

The Gulf’s decline to 19 rigs was 5% down from November and 17.4% lower than December 2016.

Africa’s 10 working rigs compares with 11 rigs in both November 2017 and December 2016 — a 9% difference. However, December 2017 is down 72% from Africa’s 36 working rigs in the pre-crisis market.

For the gainers, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East all saw significant month-to-month percentage rises, albeit still lagging behind in year-on-year terms.

Latin America’s 26 rigs were up 8.3% from November and down 18.7% from December 2016.

Europe’s leap to 30 working rigs equalled a 15.4% rise from November, while the Middle East's increase to 42 rigs was a 7.7% upturn from November.

These two month-on-month increases are the inverse of the year-on-year changes, with declines of 14.3% and 6.6%, respectively, from December 2016.

The total for December 2017, including onshore and offshore, was 2,089 working rigs, up from 2,057 in November. Offshore rigs made up a slightly larger 10% share of the total, which is relevant to the expected shift of global spending from offshore to cheaper onshore oil.