Peter,
Seems to be alot of confusion going around the patch. Lots of heavy spin. I'm told dayrates are going down. Sure looks like RIG has not been effected.
Commenting on the Company's quarterly performance, J. Michael Talbert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Transocean Offshore Inc., stated, "The Mobile Units business segment continued to benefit from a backlog of contracts signed prior to the weakening of the market for offshore drilling rigs. During the quarter, utilization of our 20 fully owned and active semisubmersibles and drillships, or floating rigs, was 93%, down from 99% in both the fourth quarter and corresponding three months of 1998. However, during the first quarter of 1999, the semisubmersible Transocean Arctic and drillship Discoverer 534 commenced new contracts with increased dayrates, and the drillship Discoverer Seven Seas received a premium dayrate while drilling a well in over 7,000 feet of water. These contract changes contributed to an improvement in the average dayrate on our 20 floating rigs to $132,100. The first quarter 1999 figure compares to an average dayrate of $125,100 during the fourth quarter of 1998 and $112,800 during the three months ended March 31, 1998.
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