Transocean Reports Q3 2009 Results

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) reported net income attributable to controlling interest for the three months ended September 30, 2009 of $710 million, or $2.19 per diluted share, compared to net income attributable to controlling interest of $1.063 billion, or $3.30 per diluted share for the three months ended September 30, 2008. Revenues for the third quarter of 2009 were $2.823 billion compared to $3.192 billion for the third quarter 2008.

Third quarter 2009 results were adversely impacted by certain net charges, after tax, totaling $148 million, or $0.46 per diluted share, as follows:
•    $132 million related to various litigation matters,
•    $46 million for impairment of intangible assets related to drilling management services,
•    $10 million primarily related to the retirement of debt and expenses associated with the GlobalSantaFe merger,
•    partially offset by $40 million of income related to discrete tax items and gains on settlements of certain tax matters.

Operations Quarterly Review
Revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2009 decreased slightly to $2.823 billion, compared to revenues of $2.882 billion during the three months ended June 30, 2009. The decrease was primarily due to a $164 million reduction in revenue resulting from the stacking of rigs and decreased activity, partially offset by a $108 million increase in revenue due to the commencement of operations of two of our newbuild drillships and improvements in dayrates and revenue efficiency.

Operating and maintenance expenses for three months ended September 30, 2009 were $1.396 billion, compared to $1.277 billion for the prior three-month period, an increase of $119 million or 9.3 percent. The quarter-to-quarter increase in operating and maintenance costs primarily consisted of $137 million related to various litigation matters and increased shipyard expenditures, partially offset by the cost benefits resulting from the stacking of rigs.

General and administrative expenses of $54 million for the third quarter of 2009 were essentially unchanged, compared to the second quarter of 2009.

Interest Expense and Liquidity
Interest expense, net of amounts capitalized, for the third quarter of 2009 totaled $115 million, compared to $114 million for the second quarter of 2009.

As of September 30, 2009, total debt was $11.922 billion, compared to total debt of $12.053 billion as of June 30, 2009, a decrease of $131 million. During the third quarter 2009, the company repaid approximately $1.2 billion of debt. This was offset by an increase of debt of $1.1 billion, including $716 million associated with the Petrobras 10000 capital lease and $353 million of other borrowings.

Cash flow from operating activities totaled $1.406 billion for the third quarter of 2009, compared to $1.576 billion for the second quarter 2009.

Effective Tax Rate
Transocean’s reported Effective Tax Rate of 16.4 percent for the third quarter of 2009 reflects a benefit from various discrete tax items of $29 million which primarily resulted from changes in estimates. Excluding these items as well as the adverse charges detailed above, the Annual Effective Tax Rate for the third quarter of 2009 was 16.4 percent versus 15.7 percent in the second quarter of 2009.