Another Delay Hits Offshore Drilling: Transocean LTD (RIG), General Electric Company (GE)

It looks right now like the industry will essentially police itself, replacing bolts where they’re installed, whether regulators require it or not. That’s the initial reaction from drillers so far.

Minimal impact this time around
The drilling industry was essentially put on hold for months when the Deepwater Horizon disaster took place, but this looks to be a much smaller deal. It’s even possible that increased scrutiny after the disaster helped limit this to a patch job instead of something bigger.

From an investment perspective, we may see an impact on first-quarter results because of the delay, but it won’t be nearly as big as it was a few years ago and it’s still unclear who will take the hit. It will depend on how contracts are written and there may be some back and forth about who foots the bill. At least this time around, they’ll be fighting over days of downtime instead of months.

The article Another Delay Hits Offshore Drilling originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Travis Hoium.

Fool contributor Travis Hoium manages an account that owns shares of Seadrill. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw. The Motley Fool recommends Seadrill. The Motley Fool owns shares of General Electric, Seadrill, and Transocean.

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