Offshore drilling giant Transocean is finalizing its acquisition of Norway’s Songa Offshore after shareholders on Thursday approved the deal.
Swiss-based Transocean, which operates primarily out of Houston, is expanding its position as the world’s largest deepwater driller in a still-struggling sector that’s slowly consolidating to match a world with less oil and gas activity than before the 2014 oil bust.
“We are extremely pleased that shareholders have overwhelmingly approved our acquisition of Songa Offshore,” said Transocean CEO Jeremy Thigpen. “With this acquisition, we add to our industry leading backlog, providing more visibility to future earnings and cash flows. As importantly, we enhance our industry leading harsh environment fleet in the midst of a strengthening global harsh environment market.”
The $1.1 billion sale strengthens Transocean’s position in harsher and deeper-water environments, especially in the North Sea, after the company sold its more shallow-water fleet last year to Borr Drilling for more than $1.3 billion.
The cheaper and faster onshore shale sector is again booming, especially in West Texas, but the offshore sector that requires largest investments, longer lead times and more stable oil pricing continues to languish for now.
Transocean, which was once headquartered in Houston, moved its legal domicile for tax reasons to the Cayman Islands nearly a decade ago, and then moved again to Switzerland.
The Songa deal is the largest offshore drilling merger of the oil bust along with Ensco recently buying Houston’s Atwood Oceanics.
At the same time, several other players have recently filed for bankruptcy, including Pacific Drilling, Seadrill and Ocean Rig.
This first appeared on the Houston Chronicle – an Energy Voice content partner. For more click here.
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