Transocean is the second-largest offshore drilling contractor in the world (by market cap). In the third quarter of 2009, the company owned 136 mobile offshore drilling platforms, including 42 high-specification floaters, 26 midwater floaters, 10 high-specification jackups, and 55 standard jackups. Transocean's rigs are floating, mobile drillships that the company rents, along with the equipment and personnel needed for operations, to oil and gas companies at a daily rate. The company manufactures drilling rigs for all depths, including deepwater, and has ten ultra-deepwater vessels in production - and it has higher dayrates and a vastly larger fleet than competitors like Noble and Diamond Offshore Drilling.^[1] Most of Transocean's drilling is occurring in the Far East, the U.K.., Middle East and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, as well as parts of Africa and Asia.^[2]

President Barack Obama announced on March 31, 2010, that he would open up large swaths of the Eastern Seaboard to off-shore drilling. The proposal allows companies to lease land and drill for oil and natural gas from the tip of Florida to the northern end of Delaware, as well as certain locations in the Gulf of Mexico and by Alaska. The proposed bill would still protect regions that are considered to be delicate, and all drilling would take place only after research to determine the effect on the environment. Already the bill has been met with resistance by Republicans who say it does not go far enough, and with harsh criticism from environmentalists. The additional areas in the Gulf of Mexico could hold up to 3.5 billion barrels of oil and 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but the start to any such drilling would still be several years off ^[3]

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