The slightly bad news for owners of offshore support vessels is that one of their primary markets, drilling rigs, lost a small sliver in August of the strong gains made in July.

The good news is that August’s global count of working offshore rigs is still significantly ahead of August 2017, meaning the overall numbers are still trending upward.

Especially noteworthy is the Middle East, where the tally of offshore rigs is well ahead of the pre-downturn level in August 2014 — by a massive 27.5%.