For quite some time, I published a series of articles over at Seeking Alpha that tracked the performance of six offshore drilling companies. Quite some time ago though, I let that series fall by the wayside. In the interim, the offshore drilling industry went through one of its worst periods in history and I ended up focusing my efforts on other projects. However, as I have been discussing in a few articles lately, the offshore drilling industry has begun to recover, albeit slowly, and I find myself with more free time. Therefore, I would like to resurrect the series so that fans of the industry can see how the recovery has begun to impact the various companies that are active in the industry. For the purposes of this report, I have chosen six companies that are largely representative of the industry as a whole and, in particular, the industry's future. 

Transocean (RIG) 

On Tuesday, September 5, 2017 (Monday was Labor Day and thus a market holiday), Transocean opened at $8.64 per share. The stock declined over the course of the week, closing at $8.47 on Friday, September 8. This represents a loss of 1.97% over the week. However, even following this loss, Transocean stock gained over the past two weeks. On August 25, the stock opened at $7.81 per share and gained over the course of that week. However, this week's decline still represents a reversal of fortunes for the company's shareholders. 

There were no significant events affecting Transocean over the past week, although it was one of the stocks that RBC upgraded a few weeks ago on indications that the indication has begun to recover. 

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Source: Fidelity Investments 

Ensco plc (ESV) 

Ensco stock also declined over the week ending September 8, 2017. On September 5, the stock opened at $4.57 per share and closed out the week at $4.45 per share. This represents a loss of 2.63% on the week. Interestingly, Ensco is almost perfectly flat over the past two weeks, although it has been nothing if not volatile over that period. On August 25, Ensco opened at $4.43 per share. Buy and hold investors might not be pleased with the company's stock performance over the past two weeks, but traders that were able to take advantage of the volatility would have seen respectable returns. 

Ensco went ex-dividend on September 8, 2017. Thus, shareholders who were holding the stock at the close of the market on Thursday will be receiving a dividend. The dividend is only $0.01 per share so it is a relatively insignificant amount but the fact that the dividend will be paid to shareholders as of that date may help to take off some of the sting of the weekly loss. 

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Source: Fidelity Investments 

Noble Corp. (NE) 

As was the case with its peers, Noble Corp shareholders saw the value of their holdings decline over the past week. On September 5, Noble's stock opened at $3.49 per share. By the end of the week, the stock had lost $0.05 and closed at $3.44. This represents a loss of 1.43%. As was the case with Transocean, Noble shareholders did see the value of their positions increase somewhat over the past two weeks. On August 25, the stock opened at $3.32 per share, giving it a two-week return of 3.61%. The stock did have considerable volatility over that period however, making it somewhat appealing for short-term traders. 

As was the case for Transocean, Noble did not experience any significant events in the past week. However, it was upgraded by RBC along with Transocean due to improvement in the industry, but as I have been mentioning, the industry recovery has been proceeding extremely slowly. 

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Source: Fidelity Investments 

Diamond Offshore (DO) 

Diamond Offshore bucked the trend over the past week as it actually delivered a positive return. The company's stock opened the week at $12.25 per share and climbed to a high of $12.80 per share on Wednesday before giving up some of its gains and finishing off the week at $12.68. This represents a gain of 3.51% on the week. This represents the continuance of an uptrend that began at the very end of last week. Thus, shareholders got to benefit much more from this stock than from many of its peers over the course of the last week. 

As with many of its peers, Diamond Offshore did not benefit from any significant news events over the past week but it was upgraded back at the end of August along with many of its peers that are also discussed in this update. 

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Source: Fidelity Investments 

Rowan Companies (RDC) 

Rowan's performance over the past week was very similar to that of its peers in that the company's shareholders saw the values of their positions decline. Rowan's stock opened the week at $10.36 and despite some early strength ended up closing down at $9.97 on Friday. This represents a loss of 3.76% on the week, which is obviously quite a bit more than many of its peers. With that said though, stockholders should certainly be pleased at the company's two-week performance, which saw a considerable gain and, although it was volatile, it did not have the same volatility as many of its peers. The stock gained over the past two weeks, much like Transocean, as seen in the stock below. 

As with most of its peers, Rowan Companies did not see any developments of note over the past week. It was also one of the companies upgraded by RBC back in August, as with most of the companies on this list so that may be benefiting the stock somewhat. 

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Source: Fidelity Investments 

Seadrill (SDRL) 

I'll admit, I expected Seadrill to have the worst performance of any of the companies on this list even before I looked at the chart for reasons that I will discuss in a few minutes. Was I right? Let's find out. Seadrill opened the week at $0.27 per share and fell straight through the week. The stock closed the week at $0.22 per share. This represents a loss of 18.5%, which is clearly the worst in this group. Interestingly, Seadrill saw massive gains last week, at least in the latter half of it and still remains considerably higher than it was last week. Shareholders may be happy about that, but this has admittedly become much more of a trading stock than one favored by long-term holders except for those that have nerves of steel. 

Seadrill saw very little news of note this past week, although rumors have recently emerged that the company is on the radar of China Merchant Group, which is looking to pick up offshore drilling assets on the cheap. However, the reason why I expected Seadrill to be the worst performer is that the company is widely expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on or by September 12. The company's management has already said that its restructuring attempts will likely wipe out all current shareholders. Thus, most investors who have not already ran for the exit were likely dumping all of their shares over the past week in an attempt to at least salvage something. 

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Source: Fidelity Investments