Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (DO)

[johnsyn]

3:18 PM Recent deals struck by Diamond Offshore (DO +1.8%) and Noble (NE +4.3%) paint a picture of a market in which deepwater oil rigs will be in high demand for years, while other drilling segments may end up being too well supplied. DO predicts as many as 40 deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico next year, vs. 31 now; both firms expect ultra-deepwater rates to keep heading higher.