Yesterday I had Tommy Lee on the podcast to talk about Transocean’s $RIG acquisition of Valaris $VAL . For anyone interested in energy, Tommy is an expert on the deepwater subsector of offshore oil services, and we dove into the transaction, how it deleverages RIG’s balance sheet, and the potential synergies between the two fleets. We also talked about other subsectors of offshore oil services, but our conversation was a good look at the transaction and where the sector is headed over the next several years. You can find Tommy on Twitter, but he’s also working on a service over at Deepwater Insight that he is close to launching. He also has his Substack that is definitely worth a follow. The podcast will be for paid subscribers for now, but it will be available to everyone on Sunday morning.

Podcast Summary

* How this transaction deleverages the balance sheet for Transocean, and accelerates the potential for capital returns.

* Why he doesn’t think the transaction will lead to problems with antitrust issues.

* The synergies between the two fleets, and why the estimated cost savings might be a little high.

* How the jackup fleet fits into the new company, and why they might look to sell some or all of the fleet in the future.

* The view on day rates, new builds, future scrapping, and the potential for more consolidation in the future.

* The jackup market and what it means for Borr, and some color on what is going on in Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

* OSVs, Tidewater, and expectation for M&A in that sector.

* Seismic, subsea equipment manufacturing, and other overlooked opportunities in and around the offshore oil services sector.

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