Noble and Diamond Offshore days away from becoming one as final regulatory approval slides into place

Two Texas-headquartered offshore drilling giants, Noble Corporation and Diamond Offshore, have managed to get all regulatory requirements out of the way, thus, their business combination is anticipated to be completed in a couple of days.

Following the two U.S. offshore drillers’ merger announcement on June 10, 2024, the waiting period for the pending merger expired on July 24, 2024, under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

The completion of the $600 million stock plus cash transaction was subject to the satisfaction of the remaining customary closing conditions, which have all now been cleared, including the receipt of clearance from the Australia Competition & Consumer Commission, as the final required regulatory approval for the merger.

As a result, the offshore drilling pair expects to close the transaction on Wednesday, September 4, 2024. Afterward, Diamond Offshore’s rigs will become part of Noble Corporation’s fleet, enlarging it to 41 rigs, encompassing 28 floaters and 13 jack-ups. The business combination is expected to lift the combined backlog to around $6.5 billion.

Noble’s acquisition of Diamond Offshore comes almost two years after the firm completed its business combination with Maersk Drilling in October 2022.

According to Wood Mackenzie, this merger marks the early stages of offshore rig market consolidation, thus, the firm anticipates more such steps in the future, even though over 60% of the total floater backlog is now with four drilling contractors.

By the end of H1 2024, the total backlog of Transocean, Valaris, Noble, Seadrill, and Diamond Offshore rose to $21.8 billion, reaffirming the offshore drillers’ spots on the top five floating rig players’ list.