The good times may not be over in the contract drilling market, but the end could be in sight. With new jack-ups and deepwater rigs scheduled to come on line in the next few years, and companies like Petrobras
Revenue rose 17% this quarter from the year-ago level as utilization stayed basically flat and dayrates picked up about 25% for the fleet as a whole. Compared to the first quarter, overall utilization fell slightly and dayrates were up about 8%. Margins, though, were not strong. Adjusted operating income rose less than 4% and field operating income was up about 5% from last year but down on a sequential basis.
Some Fools might be asking themselves why shares of drilling and service companies are so volatile when energy prices are so high and companies like ExxonMobil
Transocean does have a few advantages going its way. First, it has a sizable backlog of business (bigger than Diamond Offshore
More risk-tolerant investors might want to take their chances with shallow water operators like ENSCO
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).