Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. is an

offshore drilling Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...

contractor. The company is headquartered in

Katy, Texas Katy is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the Greater Katy area, itself forming the western part of the Greater Houston metropolitan area. Homes and businesses may have Katy postal addresses without being in the City of Katy. The city of ...

, United States, and has major offices in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Scotland, Singapore, and Norway. The company operates 15 drilling rigs including 11

semi-submersible platform A semi-submersible platform is a specialised marine vessel used in offshore roles including as offshore drilling rigs, safety vessels, oil production platforms, and heavy lift cranes. They have good ship stability and seakeeping, better than dr ...

s and 4

drillship A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or for scientific drilling purposes. In recent years the vessels have been used in deepwater and ultra-deepwater applications, equipped ...

s. In 2019, the company's revenues were primarily from

Hess Corporation Hess Corporation (formerly Amerada Hess Corporation) is an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and Chemical and Amerada Petrol ...

(28.9%),

Occidental Petroleum Occidental Petroleum Corporation (often abbreviated Oxy in reference to its ticker symbol and logo) is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States, and the Middle East as well as petrochemical manufacturing in the ...

(20.6%),

Petrobras Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a state owned enterprise, state-owned Brazilian multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The company's name transla ...

(19.5%), and BP (3.1%). Operations in the United States accounted for 52.5% of the company's revenues in 2019.

History

In the early 1960s, Brewster-Bartle, an onshore drilling company, filed

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. In 1964, Don McMahon acquired Brewster-Bartle from its bank creditors and formed Diamond M Drilling Company, named after Diamond M Acres, his ranch near

Simonton, Texas Simonton is a city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. Simonton is located at the intersection of Farm roads 1093 and 1489, approximately fourteen miles northwest of Richmond, Tex ...

, which then expanded into

. In 1970, Diamond M became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. In 1977, Kaneb Services acquired the company for $102 million. In 1989,

Loews Corporation Loews Corporation is an American conglomerate headquartered in New York City. The company's majority-stake holdings include CNA Financial Corporation, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, Loews Hotels and Altium Packaging. Th ...

acquired the company for $48.5 million. In 1992, Diamond M Corporation acquired

ODECO ODECO (Ocean Drilling & Exploration Company) was an offshore drilling company. In 1992, it was acquired by Diamond Offshore Drilling. History In 1953, the company was founded by Alden J. "Doc" Laborde, who also founded Tidewater, and John Hayward ...

from

Murphy Oil Murphy Oil Corporation is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company is ranked 625th on the Fortune 500 and 1860th on the Forbes Global 2000. As of December 31, 2020, the company had of estimate ...

for $358 million. Shortly thereafter, Diamond M Corp. briefly changed its name to Diamond M-ODECO Drilling Inc. before becoming Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. in 1993. In October 1995, the company once again became a

via an

, listing on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

. In April 1996, the company acquired Arethusa for $516 million in stock. Arethusa had previously acquired Zapata Corporation (now

HRG Group HRG Group, Inc., formerly Harbinger Group Inc. and Zapata Corporation, is a holding company based in Rochester, New York, having originated from an oil company started by a group including future U.S. president George H. W. Bush. In 2009, it w ...

). In May 2012, the company ordered a $655 million drillship from

Hyundai Heavy Industries Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea. History HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division of the ...

. On February 8, 2016, the company discontinued payment of a quarterly cash dividend. In September 2016, the company was removed from the

S&P 500 Index The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...

. In April 2020, the company filed for

in part due to the oil price collapse following the reduction in oil demand during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The company was criticized for taking CARES Act bailout money - intended for small businesses - and, in bankruptcy court, turning it into executive bonuses.

Controversies

Worker asbestos exposure

In 1989, Diamond's predecessor bought 6 drilling rigs from the predecessor of Kaneb Management. Some of Kaneb's employees continued to work for Diamond after the transaction and then sued Diamond for personal injuries they allegedly suffered from asbestos exposure while they worked for Kaneb. In a 2013 filing with the SEC, Diamond acknowledged that its equipment had been used for the "manufacture and use of asbestos-containing drilling mud" but sought to be indemnified from liability. Diamond Offshore was dubbed as a member of the Misogynist 7 by the Street because the company includes no female on the board of directors.

References

External links

{{authority control 1970s initial public offerings Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies traded over-the-counter in the United States Companies based in Houston Drilling rig operators Service companies of the United States Petroleum industry in the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020