as six rign nyse rig swiss market index component s & p 500 component industry oilfield services offshore drilling & equipment predecessor sonat offshore founded 1973 headquarters vernier switzerland key people jeremy d. thigpen president & ceo merrill a. miller jr. chairman mark l. mey cfo john b. stobart coo 1 products lease and operation of semi submersible and jack up drilling rigs and drillships revenue us 7.386 billion 1 operating income us 1.380 billion 2015 1 profit us 0.791 billion 2015 1 total assets us 26.329 billion 2015 1 total equity us 14.808 billion 2015 1 number of employees 9 100 2015 1 website www.deepwater.com greenway plaza the location of transocean s houston offices transocean ltd. is one of the world s largest offshore drilling contractors and is based in vernier switzerland . the company has offices in 20 countries including switzerland canada united states norway scotland brazil singapore indonesia and malaysia . 2 in 2010 transocean was implicated in the deepwater horizon oil spill resulting from the explosion of one of its oil rigs in the gulf of mexico . on 23 november 2015 transocean announced that it intent to delist its shares from the six swiss exchange due to financial reasons . the delisting will be effective on march 30 2016 . after the delisting the shares will be removed from the swiss blue chip index swiss market index . 3 contents 1 current operations 1.1 fleet 2 history 3 controversies 3.1 accidents and incidents 3.1.1 transocean leader accident 2002 3.1.2 galveston bay explosion 2003 3.1.3 maintenance citation on transocean rather 2005 3.1.4 sinking of bourbon dolphin supply boat transocean rather accident 2007 3.1.5 2008 fatalities 3.1.6 deepwater horizon drilling rig explosion 2010 3.1.7 offshore drilling leak off the brazilian coast 2011 3.1.8 transocean winner grounding on the isle of lewis scotland 2016 3.2 environmental record 4 see also 5 references 6 external links current operations edit the company owns 61 rigs including 28 ultra deepwater floaters 5 deepwater floaters 7 harsh environment floaters 11 midwater floaters and 10 high specification jackup rigs . 4 in 2015 chevron accounted for 14 % of the company s revenues and royal dutch shell accounted for 10 % of the company s revenues . 1 fleet edit the company provides quarterly updates on the status of its fleet on its website . 5 notable rigs owned by the company include deepwater discovery deepwater horizon deepwater millennium deepwater nautilus development driller iii discoverer clear leader discoverer enterprise gsf development driller ii history edit transocean was formed as a result of the merger of southern natural gas company later sonat with many smaller drilling companies . in 1953 the birmingham alabama based southern natural gas company created the offshore company after acquiring the joint drilling operation delong mcdermott from delong engineering and j. ray mcdermott . in 1954 the company launched rig 51 the first mobile jackup rig in the gulf of mexico . in 1967 the offshore company went public . in 1978 sng turned it into a wholly owned subsidiary . in 1982 it was changed to sonat offshore drilling inc. reflecting a change in its parent s name . in 1993 sonat spun it off . 6 in 1996 the company acquired norwegian group transocean asa for us 1.5 billion . transocean started in the 1970s as a whaling company and expanded through a series of mergers . the new company was called transocean offshore . the new company began building massive drilling operations with drills capable of going to 10 000 feet as opposed to 3 000 feet at the time and operating two drill operations on the same ship . its first ship discoverer enterprise cost nearly us 430 million and was 834 ft 254 m . 7 the enterprise class drillship is the largest of the drilling ships . 8 in 1999 transocean merged with sedco forex the offshore drilling subsidiary of schlumberger in a 3.2 billion stock transaction in which schlumberger shareholders received shares of transocean . 9 sedco forex had been formed from a merger of two drilling companies the southeastern drilling company sedco founded in 1947 by bill clements and acquired by schlumberger in 1985 for 1 billion 10 and french drilling company forages et exploitations p troli res forex founded in 1942 in german occupied france for drilling in north africa . 6 schlumberger first got a foothold in the company in 1959 and then assumed total control in 1964 and renamed it forex neptune drilling company . 11 in 2000 transocean acquired r & b falcon corporation owner of 115 drilling rigs in a deal valued at 17.7 billion . with the acquisition transocean gained control of what at the time was the world s largest offshore operation . among r & b falcon s assets was the deepwater horizon . 12 r & b falcon had acquired cliffs drilling company in 1988 . 13 in 2005 the company s discoverer spirit rig set a world record for the deepest offshore oil and gas well of 34 189 ft 10 421 m . 14 in 2007 the us department of justice and the securities and exchange commission filed a case against transocean alleging violations of the foreign corrupt practices act . the case alleged that transocean paid bribes through its freight forwarding agents to nigerian customs officials . transocean later admitted to approving the bribes and agreed to pay usd 13 440 000 to settle the matter . 15 in 2007 the company merged with globalsantafe corporation in a transaction that created a company with an enterprise value of 53 billion . shareholders of globalsantafe corporation received 15 billion of cash as well as stock in the new company for their shares . robert e. rose who was non executive chairman of globalsantafe was made transocean s chairman . rose had been chairman of global marine prior to its 2001 merger with santa fe international corporation . 16 in 2008 the company moved its headquarters to switzerland resulting in a significantly lower tax rate . 17 in september 2009 its deepwater horizon rig established a 35 050 ft 10 680 m well the deepest well in history more than 5 000 feet deeper than its stated design specification . 14 in 2010 transocean was implicated in the deepwater horizon oil spill resulting from the explosion of one of its oil rigs in the gulf of mexico that was leased to bp . 18 in 2011 the company acquired aker drilling which owned 4 harsh environment rigs used for drilling near norway . 19 in 2012 the company sold 38 shallow water rigs and narrowed its focus on high specification deepwater rigs . 20 in 2013 the company was added to the s & p 500 index . 21 in february 2015 ceo steven newman quit following a 2.2 billion quarterly loss . 22 controversies edit accidents and incidents edit transocean was rated as a leader in its industry for many years . however since the company s merger with globalsantafe in 2007 transocean s reputation has suffered considerably according to energypoint research an independent oil service industry rating firm . from 2004 to 2007 transocean was the leader or near the top among deep water drillers in job quality and overall satisfaction . in 2008 and 2009 surveys ranked transocean as last among deep water drillers for job quality and as next to last in overall satisfaction . in 2008 and 2009 transocean ranked first for in house safety and environmental policies and in the middle of the pack for perceived environmental and safety record . 23 the deepwater horizon explosion and massive oil spill starting in april 2010 further hurt its reputation . transocean is dominant but the accident has definitely tarnished its reputation for worker safety and for being able to manage and deliver on extraordinarily complex deepwater projects said christopher ruppel an energy expert and managing director of capital markets at execution noble an investment bank . 24 transocean leader accident 2002 edit on march 2 2002 a scottish man was killed in an accident aboard the transocean leader drilling rig operated for bp located about 138 kilometers 86 miles west of shetland scotland . 25 galveston bay explosion 2003 edit on june 17 2003 one worker was killed four others were hospitalised and 21 were evacuated after an explosion on a transocean gas drilling rig in galveston bay texas . 26 maintenance citation on transocean rather 2005 edit on august 24 2005 the uk health and safety executive issued a notice to transocean saying that it had failed to maintain its remote blowout preventor control panel in an efficient state efficient working order and in good repair . 27 on november 21 2005 transocean was found to be in compliance for this matter . 27 sinking of bourbon dolphin supply boat transocean rather accident 2007 edit on april 12 2007 the bourbon dolphin supply boat sank off the coast of scotland while servicing the transocean rather drilling rig killing eight people . the norwegian ministry of justice established a commission of inquiry to investigate the incident and the commission s report found a series of unfortunate circumstances led to the accident with many of them linked to bourbon offshore and transocean . 28 29 2008 fatalities edit in 2008 two transocean workers were reportedly killed on the company s vessels . 30 deepwater horizon drilling rig explosion 2010 edit this section may require cleanup to meet wikipedia s quality standards . january 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message main article deepwater horizon drilling rig explosion on april 20 2010 a fire was reported on a transocean owned semisubmersible drilling rig deepwater horizon . deepwater horizon was a reading & bates falcon rbs8d design a firm that was acquired by transocean in 2001 . the fire broke out at 10 00 p.m. cdt utc 5 in us waters of mississippi canyon 252 in the gulf of mexico . the rig was 41 mi 66 km off the louisiana coast . the us coast guard launched a rescue operation after the explosion which killed 11 workers and critically injured seven of the 126 member crew . 31 32 deepwater horizon was completely destroyed and subsequently sank . as the deepwater horizon sank the riser pipe that connected the well head to the rig was severed . as a result oil began to spill into the gulf of mexico . estimates of the leak were about 80 000 barrels per day for 87 days . louisiana governor bobby jindal declared a state of emergency on 29 april as the oil slick grew and headed toward the most important and most sensitive wetlands in north america threatening to destroy wildlife and the livelihood of thousands of fishermen . the head of bp group told cnn s brian todd on 28 april that the accident could have been prevented and focused blame on transocean which owned and partly manned the rig . 33 transocean came under fire from lawyers representing the fishing and tourism businesses that were hit by the oil spill and the united states department of justice for seeking to use an limitation of liability act of 1851 to restrict its liability for economic damages to 26.7 million . 34 during congressional testimony transocean and bp blamed each other for the disaster . it emerged that a heated argument broke out on the platform 11 hours before the accident in which transocean and bp personnel disagreed on an engineering decision related to the closing of the well . 35 on may 14 2010 us president barack obama commented i did not appreciate what i considered to be a ridiculous spectacle executives of bp and transocean and halliburton the firm responsible for cementing the well falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else . the american people could not have been impressed