TRANSOCEAN, the oil and gas drilling giant, has said it plans to spin off a business focused on the UK North Sea but remains committed to the area.
Switzerland-based Transocean said it plans to transfer eight of its UK North Sea drilling rigs to a new entity, Caledonia Offshore Drilling Company.
Transocean said the new company will be established in the second half of 2014. It will separate Caledonia from Transocean "at an appropriate stage".
The company said the creation of Caledonia reflects its strategy of divesting non-core assets.
However, it added: "The UK North Sea remains an important market for Transocean and the company is committed to maintaining its presence in the region. As such, various options for the separation of Caledonia are under consideration."
The rigs it will transfer are reported to lease for around $400,000 a day. They are the Sedco 704, Sedco 711, Sedco 712, Sedco 714, Transocean John Shaw, Transocean Prospect, GSF Arctic III and J.W. McLean rigs.
Transocean has interests in around 90 rigs and drillships.
Transocean operated the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded on a BP licence in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 triggering a disastrous spill.
In January 2013 the company said a subsidiary had agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanour violation of the US Clean Water Act for negligent discharge of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and pay $1.4 billion in fines, recoveries and penalties, excluding interest.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article