Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc. (TODDI) has filed a motion for summary judgment in the U.S. Eastern District Court in Louisiana requesting the court to force BP to honor its contractual obligation to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Transocean for damages associated with BP’s failure to contain flow from its Macondo well in 2010. Transocean says BP has refused to honor its contractual obligations despite what Transocean says is the industry-standard reciprocal indemnity provisions contained in the drilling contract. The original contract was signed in 1998 and extended several times up to and including in 2009. Language in the contract says BP will “defend, release, protect, indemnify and hold harmless” Transocean for any and all fines, penalties and damages associated with environmental pollution originating from the well “without limit and without regard to the cause or causes” including negligence, “whether such negligence be sole, joint, active, passive or gross.” The motion also asserts that after months of discovery and over 200 witness dispositions, it was clear that no evidence of gross negligence by Transocean existed. BP filed suit against Transocean on the one-year anniversary of the incident, alleging that Transocean personnel had willful and callous disregard for the welfare of ...

Ensco, PLC announced the completion of its acquisition of Pride International, with the sale creating the world’s second largest offshore driller. Under terms of the agreement—with exceptions for certain UK residents as well as dissenting stockholders—Pride stockholders will receive 0.4778 share of newly issued Ensco stock plus $15.60 for each share of Pride common stock.

The expanded 76-rig Ensco fleet now consists of 7 ultradeepwater drillships, 13 dynamically positioned semis, 7 moored semis, and 49 premium jackups. The deal also gives Ensco a substantial presence in Brazil and West Africa, two high-growth areas where it previously was not well established. The Pride fleet has been renamed, with the exception of three jackups: the Pride Pennsylvania, Pride Hawaii, and Pride Wisconsin. These units will likely be sold at some point. In related news, Ensco newbuild drillship ENSCO DS-4, the former Deep Ocean Clarion, has departed the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for Brazil, where it will begin a 5-year contract with BP. The rig was originally slated to mobilize to Libya for BP, but civil unrest there prompted the change. It is expected that newbuild drillship ENSCO DS-5 (formerly Deep Ocean Mendocino), now undergoing acceptance testing, will begin its 5-year contract ...

On May 17, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. entered into an agreement whereby the operator will contract newbuild drillships Ocean BlackHawk and Ocean BlackHornet for five-year terms starting in late 2013 and early 2014. The rigs are currently being built at the Hyundai Heavy Industries yard in South Korea. The two contracts will generate a total of $1.8 billion in revenue for Diamond. In addition, both companies agreed to dismiss all claims relating to Anadarko’s 2010 force majeure declaration on semi Ocean Monarch. Diamond disputed the claim, and the two parties had been in discussions for the past several months. Following this announcement on May 19, Diamond reported it had exercised an option with Hyundai Heavy Industries to build a third Gusto P-10000 design drillship at an estimated cost of $614 million. The rig will be rated to drill in up to 12,000 fsw and will have dual activity capability, a seven-ram blowout preventer, and a maximum hookload capacity of 1,250 tons. Delivery of the yet to be named unit is scheduled for the second quarter of 2014. The order now gives Diamond eight rigs that will be able to drill in at least 10,000 fsw.

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Rowan Companies reported a net income of $32.1 million on revenues of $364.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2011. That compared to a net income of $64.6 million on revenues of $432.4 million for the same period in 2010. Transocean, Ltd reported that for the three months ended March 31, 2011, it earned net income of $310 million on revenues of $2.144 billion versus net income of $677 million on revenues of $2,579 billion. Parker Drilling said it had a net income of $4.8 million on revenues of $156.2 million for the first quarter of 2011 compared to a net loss of $2.1 million on revenues of $157.6 million for the first three months of 2010. Atwood Oceanics said it earned net income of $70.6 million on revenues of $159 million for the first three months of 2011 versus a net income of $66.7 million on revenues of $159 million for the same period a year ago.

Diamond Offshore jackup Ocean Titan has moved to Ship Shoal Block 290 to begin the final well of its contract with ANKOR Energy. Operations are expected to last around 30-days. Also, jackup Ocean Columbia is now on location in ...

Hercules Offshore finalized its purchase 20 jackups from Seahawk Drilling on April 27. Seven of the Seahawk rigs are currently working with nearly 500 days of contract backlog. The seven contracted rigs have been renamed as follows: Seahawk 2001 (Hercules 212), Seahawk 2004 (Hercules 213), Seahawk 2007 (Hercules 214), Seahawk 2600 (Hercules 263), Seahawk 2601 (Hercules 264), Seahawk 2602 (Hercules 265) and Seahawk 3000 (Hercules 300). In addition, cold stacked rigs Seahawk 2006 was renamed Hercules 209, the Seahawk 2504 is now the Hercules 256 and the Seahawk 2505 was renamed Hercules 259. For the remaining nine jackups, Seahawk was replaced with Hercules but the rig numbers remained the same.

Hercules Offshore has received two new contracts that will keep jackup Hercules 204 working to late July. The rig is preparing to move this week to Ship Shoal Block 151 for a 45-day well with Pisces Energy. Upon completion of that work in mid-June, the rig will go to Ship Shoal Block 112 for a 40-day well with Stone Energy. The rig has been briefly stacked in Eugene Island Block 113 after completing a contract with LLOG Exploration. Also, Chevron has extended contracts on jackups Hercules 120, Hercules 173 ...

Transocean Offshore, Inc. will mobilize one drillship out of and one drillship into the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in the next couple of months. First, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. will take the Discoverer Spirit to Sierra Leone, where it will drill two wells this year. The rig will begin a three year extension with Anadarko this month and has been working for the operator since late 2007. Meanwhile, Statoil will mobilize the Discoverer Americas back to the gulf from Egypt. Statoil moved the rig from the gulf last year as a result of the BOEMRE-imposed deepwater drilling moratorium. The rig’s contract runs to February 2014.

Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. is also expected to mobilize its semi Ocean Confidence back to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico late this year. The rig’s contract in the gulf with Murphy Exploration & Production Co. USA was suspended when the rig moved to the Republic of Congo in June 2010. The initial three-well term was to last for around 90 days before the semi was mobilized back, but the inability to obtain permit approvals have kept the rig overseas longer than originally planned. It currently is under contract in Angola with Cobalt International Energy, LP ...