Noble Corp. Reports 4Q 2012 Profit of $128 Million

Noble Corporation, a drilling contractor for the offshore oil and gas industry, today reported fourth quarter 2012 earnings of $128 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, compared to $115 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2012.

Earnings for the fourth quarter 2011 totaled $127 million, or $0.50 per diluted share. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2012 were $966 million compared to $884 million in the third quarter of 2012 and $751 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Earnings for the full year 2012 totaled $522 million, or $2.05 per diluted share, on revenues of $3.5 billion. The results compared to earnings of $371 million, or $1.46 per diluted share on revenues of $2.7 billion in 2011.

Addressing the Company’s performance in the fourth quarter of 2012, David W. Williams, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Noble Corporation stated, “A company transformation as extensive as we are undertaking can be challenging, and as we saw in the fourth quarter, can produce inconsistent operating performance. Although Noble added three state-of-the-art, ultra-deepwater drillships to its fleet during 2012 and placed two other drillships into service following significant enhancement and maintenance programs, initial operations on these five rigs have not been as seamless as we had hoped, particularly with respect to certain critical components. Approximately 33 percent of the downtime days in the fourth quarter were attributable to these five rigs. In 2013, we are heavily focused on improving results from these rigs, our incoming newbuilds and the revenue efficiency of our entire fleet.”

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Press Release, January 24, 2013