Transocean was forced to delay its third quarter results after being hit by $2.76billion worth of impairment charges amid declining contract values.
The firm, which owns the biggest fleet of deepwater drilling rigs, said: “The charge is the result of impairment testing conducted due to the decline in the market valuation of the contract drilling business.”
A dip in rig-use fees was also thought to have affected today’s delay.
On the back of the announcement, the firm suffered a 7.9% fall in the markets down to $27.55.
In a note to investors, Tudor Pickering Holt & Co wrote, “ouch” before saying today’s delay “reflects the reality of this oversupplied floater rig market globally.”
It’s thought the firm has four ultra-deepwater drillships in need of work after a spate of contract cancellations.
Just yesterday Statoil delayed the use of Transocean’s Spitsbergen rig.
This year also seen Transocean go head-to-head with BP over a “missing comma”.
The firm owned the Deepwater Horizon rig during 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster.
BP, which has paid out more than $28billion in the wake of the offshore tragedy, launched a bid to claw back a $750million chunk back by stating a missing comma may give the oil company access to Transocean’s insurance policy on the rig.