Maersk Drilling boss Claus Hemmingsen said today he expects the offshore rig market to recover next year, despite the market remaining under pressure for the rest of 2009.

"We are seeing now in the last couple of months quite a substantial increase in the activity level - a lot of tenders coming out, activity coming back - but it is not for 2009, it is activity that starts in 2010 or by the end of this year," Hemmingsen told Reuters in an interview.

"By 2010 the activity level will increase and there will be an effect on the day rates, so maybe by the end of the first half or second half of 2010 we could see day rates starting to move upwards," he said.

The chief executive of the Danish player said that the pressure is on jack-up rigs - not on the deep-water drilling segment.

Hemmingsen told the news agency that Maersk, which will have 16 offshore rigs once it completes a building programme next year, aims to expand beyond its North Sea base, and will target the "deep-water triangle" between West Africa, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico.

"A good gut feeling is that if you want the critical mass and some economies of scale and the ability to play a little bit on the asset game, somewhere between 25 and 35 rigs is a minimum goal to achieve that," Hemmingsen said.

However, he told Reuters that was something he would expect to see in a five to 10-year timespan.