Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from the line of Robin Shoemaker with Bear Stearns.
Robin Sheomaker – Bear Stearns
Good overview. Just going back to your projection of visible supply, 189 vessels. I believe you've mentioned visible demand of over 200. Is that still your projection?
Todd Hornbeck
It could be. That's if all demand drivers are on time and working at 100% which we tend to be a little bit more conservative in our numbers. Things can change. Those demand drivers come on between now and 2011. So, we're a little bit more conservative but if you change the multipliers, boat to rig that we use very slightly which in a very, very tight market can swell as a result of oil companies not wanting to be caught without tonnage and also if you have any natural phenomena like a hurricane or something of that nature that also can drive that multiplier higher. So we're a little on the conservative side but it can swell as we've seen in the past to those type of multipliers.
Robin Shoemaker – Bear Stearns
Is that multiplier 2 to 1?
Todd Hornbeck
No, sir. It's not. We parse it out in a much more granular detail than that. We look at the production side, the exploration side of the business and what those multipliers have historically been. We look at construction projects that are coming on line and what they are going to soak up, specialty. So we have a flavor of about five or six different categories that we look at and review the multipliers.
Now we try to apply a lot of science to it but the market, as crazy as it's been over the last couple of years, it's hard to track. We've been more conservative than we have been able to hit the multipliers right on the target.
Robin Shoemaker – Bear Stearns
I wanted to ask also about the costs of the new build program. You mentioned $450 million is now the estimated cost of the high end vessels. So what was the previous estimate of that construction cost of those vessels? I think you revised it upward, right?
Todd Hornbeck
Yes. We did. We had some additional cost on our conversion programs here in the U.S. and we also added some more features to some of the vessels as well between extra accommodations and different types of cranes and things of that nature that would make them a lot more achievable.
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