Diamond Offshore Drilling News

Hornblower Group announced Monday that Adam C. Peakes has joined the company as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Peakes will report to Kevin Rabbitt, chief executive officer, Hornblower Group.As Hornblower Group’s CFO, Peakes will oversee the company’s global shared services functions of finance and accounting, human resources, information technology and marine operations.“I am excited to welcome Adam to the Hornblower family and work with him as a trusted partner,” said Kevin Rabbitt, chief executive officer, Hornblower Group.

Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) hired alumnus Captain Gordon ‘Mac’ MacArthur to serve as master aboard the Training Ship State of Maine.With more than 30 years of experience in the maritime field, MacArthur served most recently as a Senior Dynamic Positioning Officer for Diamond Offshore Drilling, where he monitored environmental conditions, assisted in incident investigation and analysis, maintained and tested equipment, and managed personnel aboard offshore drilling vessels. Prior to joining Diamond, MacArthur served as Chief Mate and Master with Seadrill.

A wave of oil and gas bankruptcies in North America is likely to continue this year as oil prices remain depressed and a new surge of COVID-19 cases threaten to stall any recovery in fuel demand, law firm Haynes and Boone said in a report released this week.Bankruptcies surged in the second quarter, including from major shale independents Chesapeake Energy and Whiting Petroleum, as oil prices collapsed due to the pandemic and a brief, unexpected price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.There were 18 producer bankruptcies in the second quarter…

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc posted a smaller-than-expected loss on Monday, as a fall in revenue was offset by a 15 percent drop in costs.The Houston-based company's total operating expenses fell to $321.2 million from $378.5 million, a year earlier.As oil prices stay above $70 a barrel, oil and gas producers are again showing an interest in expensive offshore projects that can take up to a decade to develop.The rig contractor recorded a loss of $69.27 million, or 50 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, compared to a profit of $15.95 million, or 12 cents per share, a year earlier.Excluding items, the company posted a loss of 33 cents per share.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc's fourth-quarter revenue beat analysts' estimates on Monday, helped by higher demand for its ultra-deepwater rigs. The company's revenue from its ultra-deepwater rigs rose more than 24 percent to $288.28 million in the fourth quarter. Total revenue fell nearly 12 percent to $346.21 million, but beat analysts' estimate of $331.91 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. "Although market conditions continue to be challenging, we were able to secure additional work for the Ocean Valor and Ocean Valiant…

ABS is working with industry to improve efficiencies in offshore development. “ABS is working on multiple fronts to help the offshore industry find efficiencies and streamline operations,” says ABS Executive Vice President for Global Offshore Ken Richardson. “We are coordinating efforts for standardization and working one-on-one with companies that are changing the way offshore projects are executed,” he added. Recent work with Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. on the company’s Floating Factory drillship concept is an example of how ABS is working with drilling contractors, in this case, approving the basic design for this innovative concept.

Rig contractor Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc's Chief Executive Officer Marc Edwards said on Monday oil prices needed to be "well over $60" to spur a recovery in offshore drilling. The company's shares reversed course and were down 2.3 percent at $16.67, with investors shrugging off a beat on quarterly profit and revenue. Global benchmark Brent crude prices have stabilized after a more than two-year slump, with prices hovering around $55 per barrel. "Offshore drilling is cyclical in nature…

SEACOR Holdings Inc. has appointed William “Bill” C. Long as the company's Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, effective immediately. He will report directly to Charles Fabrikant, SEACOR's Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Long brings to SEACOR more than 20 years of business and legal experience with publicly-traded companies. Prior to joining SEACOR Holdings, Long served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of GulfMark Offshore, Inc., and previously spent more than 17 years with Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc., where he was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary.

Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. informs it will issue its future fleet status reports each calendar quarter concurrent with the release of its quarterly earnings.   Diamond Offshore has historically issued its fleet status reports on a monthly basis, but has decided to change to quarterly reporting to better protect sensitive customer and contract information in light of competitive dynamics in the offshore drilling industry, the company explained.

Not so long ago, advanced drillships costing more than half a billion dollars each and capable of operating in ever-deeper waters practically guaranteed big profits for oil-rig operators. Now, with oil prices down by half since June, many have become a burden on their owners as drilling activity slows. Drillship operators face a more brutal hit to margins than they did after the oil-price crash of 2008 because of the huge cost of maintaining the more than $10 billion worth of state-of-the-art vessels that have been idled at sea, analysts say. Noble Corp Plc, Ensco Plc and Transocean Ltd are among companies that have invested in advanced rigs which, unlike older jack-up rigs that attach to the ocean floor, rely on dynamic positioning systems using thrusters to keep them in position.

Rig contractor Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc said it expected a significant number of ultra-deepwater rigs to be idled across the industry by year-end as oil producers' capital budget is likely to be lowered by a fifth this year. The company also said it would not pay a special dividend as it had been doing since 2006 to save cash to take advantage of opportunities in a distressed market. "...This action saves the company about $415 million over the next year, potentially equivalent to the cost of an ultra-deepwater asset," Evercore ISI analyst James West wrote in a note.

Advances in drilling technology are reviving the prospects of oil companies in shallow parts of the Gulf of Mexico, helping to squeeze more from older fields while the U.S. shale bonanza lures others onshore. Apache Corp and a handful of smaller independent companies are using seismic surveying and horizontal drilling - techniques perfected during the onshore fracking boom - to tap mature fields and find hidden reserves on the shelf. The methods appeal to investors hungry for the quick profits that cannot be delivered by deepwater drilling, where a dozen years of planning and billions of dollars in investment can be required to get oil pumping.

National Oilwell Varco Inc, the largest U.S. oilfield equipment provider, said orders fell by nearly a quarter in the first quarter and it expects demand for new offshore rigs to slow during the second half of the year. The company's shares fell about 7 percent. Demand for contract drilling is softening as rigs ordered during boom times are being delivered now. Large oil companies are tightening spending after a decade of double-digit increase in budgets as oil prices stagnate and project costs rise.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc, one of the world's top five offshore rig contractors, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as it cut drilling costs and hiked prices, sending its shares up as much as 10.5 percent. The company - owned 50.4 percent by hotel, energy and financial services conglomerate Loews Corp - also said it would pay a special cash dividend of 75 cents per share on top of its regular quarterly dividend of 13 cents. Diamond Offshore, which has one of the oldest fleet of rigs…

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc, one of the world's top five offshore rig contractors, reported a 17 percent drop in quarterly profit as demand fell for rigs used in deep water drilling. Contract drillers face a tough year as vessels ordered during boom times are delivered just as energy companies are tightening spending on offshore exploration. Diamond Offshore, whose competitors include Ensco Plc , Transocean Ltd and Helmerich & Payne Inc , has two rigs due for delivery in 2014 but has yet to land contracts for them. While the fall in rig demand and utilization is likely to affect the entire sector, analysts expect Diamond Offshore to fare worse than rivals, given the age of its fleet.

Reuters - (The following statement was released by rating agency RPT-Fitch Solutions) Credit default swaps (CDS) on Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (Diamond) have widened 47% over the past month, according to Fitch Solutions. Diamond's CDS significantly underperformed the 3.4% CDS tightening for the broader North America oil and gas sector over the same time period. Additionally, the cost of credit protection on Diamond's debt has been climbing steadily since late January. After trading consistently at 'A/A+' levels since November 2013…

In the company's financial report for the fourth quarter of 2103 Diamond Offshore Drilling announced that for the full year 2013 their net income of $549 million, or $3.95 per share, compared with net income of $720 million, or $5.18 per share, in 2012. Revenues for the full year 2013 were $2.920 billion, compared with $2.987 billion in 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2012, Diamond Offshore reported net income of $156 million, or $1.12 per share, which included an after-tax impairment charge of $40.6 million…

Fairmount Marine’s tug Fairmount Summit has delivered rig Ocean Valiant safely in the port of Las Palmas, Canary Islands. Fairmount Summit has towed the rig from offshore Cameroon over a distance of almost 3,000 miles. The Ocean Valiant is a semi-submersible drilling rig owned by Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., headquartered in Houston, U.S. The 1988 build rig is 122 meters long, 71 meters wide and 37 meters high, is capable to drill up to 10,000 meters deep and can accommodate 140 persons.

Diamond Offshore Drilling order Moss CS60E design harsh environment semi-submersible drilling rig from Hyundai Heavy Industries, & charter it out to BP subsidiary. The 10,000 ft. dynamically positioned rig is expected to be delivered after November 2015. Projected capital cost of the unit including spares, commissioning and shipyard supervision is approximately $755 million. The company also announced that a three-year drilling contract has been entered into with a subsidiary of BP plc to utilize the rig for initial operations off the coast of South Australia. The initial operating dayrate under the drilling contract is $585,000 per day and is subject to upward adjustment for certain increased operating costs and equipment modifications.

At the 150th Annual Meeting of the Members of ABS, three industry leaders were elected to the ABS Council. Following the Annual Meeting, the ABS Council met and elected industry leaders to both its Marine and Offshore Technical Committees. Individuals serving on the ABS Council and the Technical Committees help guide the class society in fulfilling its mission of promoting the security of life, property and the natural environment. “Classification represents the concept of self-regulation for the marine and offshore industry,” said ABS President and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki.

Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. announce that a subsidiary, Diamond Offshore Drilling Limited, has entered into a turnkey contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. for construction of a new ultra-deepwater drillship with delivery scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2014. Total cost, including commissioning, spares and project management, but excluding capitalized interest, is expected to be approximately $655 million. The new drillship, to be named Ocean BlackLion, will be of the same design as Diamond Offshore’s three units currently on order with Hyundai. Design specifications include dynamic-positioning…

Fairmount Marine’s tug Fairmount Alpine has towed the rig Ocean Whittington from offshore Belem, Brazil, to offshore Galveston, US. For this job Fairmount Marine was contracted by the rigs owner, Diamond Offshore Drilling, for which Fairmount has performed a series of towages in recent years. Ocean Whittington is a semi submersible drilling rig for deep water operations. The rig has worked offshore the northern Brazilian coast since 2009. To tow the rig to the Gulf Fairmount Marine mobilized tug Fairmount Alpine…

A Diamond Offshore Drilling subsidiary contracts with Jurong Shipyard, Singapore for a moored semi-submersible rig. Total cost for the project is expected to be approximately US$ 370-million, including commissioning, spares and project management, but excluding capitalized interest. The rig, to be named the Ocean Apex, will be capable of operations in water depths up to 6,000 feet. Design specifications also include a variable deck load of 7,000 long tons, a maximum hook-load capacity of two million pounds, a 15K five-ram blowout preventer, crew quarters capacity for 140 personnel, and a deck area among the largest of any semisubmersible rig in the world.