Out Fox The $treet

After decades as an onshore and shallow water drilling specialist, Rowan Companies plc ( NYSE: RDC     ) is quickly shifting toward a mix of deepwater drillships. The company has four ultra-deepwater (UDW) drillships either recently starting operations or under construction. With the recent announcement of a contract for the last of the four drillships, the driller now has secured contracts for all of the UDW ships through mid-2017. The recent contract signed with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold ( NYSE: FCX     ) has mostly positive indications for Rowan, which is good as the company began the year with a substantial amount of rigs rolling off contract. Also noteworthy, Noble Corp. ( NYSE: NE     ) didn't obtain this contract after securing a couple of deals for new drillships with Freeport-McMoRan starting operations soon. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please read the disclaimer page...

It seems that just about every analyst can't wait to forecast a potential plunge in deepwater and offshore drillers. The latest is an analyst call out of Barclays that the general offshore sector, including the deepwater drillers, will take a hit. Only a few weeks back, the focus was on the difference between the legacy drillers and the modern drillers . The latest report from Barclays brought a few more firms into focus, including Atwood Oceanics ( NYSE: ATW     ) , Rowan ( NYSE: RDC     ) , and a big hit to Diamond Offshore Drilling Read full article here . Disclosure: Long ATW. Please read the disclaimer page for details.