Atwood Oceanics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE: ATW) is an offshore oil and gas drilling company. It participates in drilling in exploratory regions around the world. Atwood Oceanics Pacific Limited (A.O.P.L.) and related subsidiaries of Atwood Oceanics, Inc. make up what is referred to as the Atwood Group.
[edit] History
The Atwood Group owns and operates eight offshore oil and gas drilling rigs. Organized in 1968, Atwood Oceanics began operation by 1970. In 1972 Atwood was placed on the stock market and is currently under the symbol ATW on the New York Stock Exchange. The Atwood Group has conducted drilling operations in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Black Sea, Australia, East and West Africa, Southeast Asia, Mediterranean Sea, China, Far East, Papua New Guinea, India, Central and South America and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Atwood Group's American headquarters is in Houston, Texas. It also operates from Australia, Malaysia, Malta, Indonesia, Egypt and the United Kingdom.
[edit] Gas and oil rigs
Atwood Oceanics owns two jack-up rigs, four semi-submersible rigs, one submersible rig, and one semi-subersible tender assist vessel. Constructed in 1974, and located off the coast of West Africa, The Seahawk is the oldest of all the rigs.1 Both the Vicksburg and the Southern Cross were built in 1976. The Vicksburg is in the waters of Thailand and the Southern Cross is in the Black Sea. In 1981 the Hunter was constructed and is now stationed in Mauritania, drilling at a depth of up to 28,000 feet/8,500 metres. The Eagle was built in 1982 and is off the coast of Australia. The cantilever submersible rig named Richmond was also built in 1982 and is the only one of Atwood’s rigs currently stationed in U.S. waters, the Gulf of Mexico. The Falcon was built in 1983 and now operates in the waters of Malaysia. The Beacon, constructed in 2003, is located in Singapore and is scheduled to be moved to India in December. Atwood Oceanics Inc. has plans for a ninth drilling unit, the Atwood Aurora, currently being constructed at the Keppel AmFELS, Inc. yard in Brownsville, Texas at a cost of US$160 million; planned to be in operation upon delivery in September 2008. Since 1996, the Atwood group has spent over US$400 million in upgrading seven of its eight offshore drilling units.
