Lance Glinn:

Welcome into another episode of the Inside the Ice House podcast. Today our guest is Keelan Adamson. He is the CEO of Transocean. Keelan, thanks so much for joining us Inside the Ice House. Happy to have you here.

Keelan Adamson:

It's great to be here, Lance. This is my first ever podcast, so I'm-

Lance Glinn:

Exciting. There you go.

Keelan Adamson:

I'm really excited about doing it.

Lance Glinn:

So we're going to break you in. It'll be a fun conversation. We'll talk a lot about Transocean over the next however many minutes. And I want to kick things off for listeners who may not follow offshore drilling today. How do you describe what Transocean does? What's the core of your business, the services you provide, the environments you provide them in, and the role you play in helping energy companies reach resources that can only be accessed offshore?

Keelan Adamson:

Yeah, great question, Lance. We are an offshore driller, so we are owning and operating some of the biggest deep water rigs in the world. So what does that mean? We work for customers like BP and Exxon and Shell, and a lot of the major names that you would know. And we essentially help them find and appraise and develop oil fields in the world. And we work essentially pretty global. We work all around the world. We own 27 offshore vessels, we own 20 drill ships and seven semi-submersibles that work predominantly in the harsh environment. So our role is a very important role. We take great pride actually in the role we have in the energy sector. And frankly, without drillers, all companies can't get to the product, they can't get to the hydrocarbon. So we play a very critical role in that process and we're very proud to do it.

Lance Glinn:

And so Transocean turning 100 is an incredible milestone that I want to bring up, especially in an industry that has seen shifts, challenges, tailwinds as well. You've spent now 30 years of your career inside the company from your early days on the rig all the way to now, obviously leading the company. With that perspective... And I'm sure we could do a whole podcast on just this question alone, going through all 30 years, don't want you to do that. But just from that perspective of the last three decades, how would you describe Transocean evolution into the industry leader that it is now?

Keelan Adamson:

That is a long question, but-

Lance Glinn:

And like I said, we could probably do a whole podcast on that alone. Let's go year by year by year. But just in a few words, how would you just describe what Transocean has become into the leader it is?

Keelan Adamson:

A lot of vision. We had a leadership that understood that the opportunity presented itself to work in an environment. So as a company, we have moved from land rigs actually off to offshore, shallow water offshore, and then we've progressed further and further as technology's advanced into the deeper water plays. So it requires a huge amount of experience, it requires a lot of capital and it requires a huge amount of talent, skill, technology that we can bring to bear on our assets. So the journey for our company has been phenomenal.

Obviously, it's made up of a lot of legacy companies in our space. And as you know, this business is pretty cyclical. So we have weathered a lot of cycles and we are one of the few companies that haven't had to restructure, and we're very proud of that in recent times. So built upon lots of different companies and lots of different assets, but then as our customers have started to reach deeper and deeper to try and find the greater reserves. And from a reserve point of view, the deep water fields tend to be the biggest fields. So when we're talking about volumes of hydrocarbons, while it is a very capital intensive concept and project to execute, the returns are very, very strong. And it takes our customers to put serious amounts of money in billions of dollars to commit to these sorts of fields. But the returns are really strong. And so the movement from shallow to deep is driven around the energy that is required to support the world's development.

Lance Glinn:

And in this deep water, just for our listeners, is that where you normally see... Because you mentioned all the different assets that you have under your portfolio. Is that normally where you would see a ship? Would you see a semi submersible there? Can you describe what type of asset is sort of in what location?

Keelan Adamson:

Right. Well, as I said, we own the highest spec fleet in the world, and essentially what we have are 20 drill ships that will go to the deep water region. So to give you a context, we can put those rigs into 10,000 feet of water, which is what? Two miles. We connect to the seabed two miles down, and then we drill.

Lance Glinn:

You make it sound like it's a little amount. Imagine how deep that is when you're thinking about it.

Keelan Adamson:

When you think about it it's huge.

Lance Glinn:

A 12-foot pool is deep enough.

Keelan Adamson:

Right. And nobody's down at the seabed, this is all done remotely. The ships are big. They're 800 feet long, that's like two football fields long. They're as wide as a football field, and they displace the same amount of water, the same amount of tonnage as an aircraft carrier. So just to put it in conceptual terms, they're huge. They're huge vessels. They need to be because they've got to sit in that environment. And so we have 20 of those working in the deep water provinces, which are typically, we call it the golden triangle, is the main area for deep water, which is US Gulf. And then you draw a line right across to West Africa, and then you can draw another line back over to South America and Brazil. So that triangle that exists there, that's the main deep water province in the world. Of course, there are other provinces like India in Asia and places like that, but the most prevalent places is in that area.

So those deep water drill ships work in that area. That's their main activity place, but they can work in shallower water as well. So the great thing about having a fleet like this is that you can move them around the world. And so we can address lots of different opportunities. The other part of our fleet is the semi-submersible. It's a completely different design vessel. It's built for the harsh environment, which means high seas, big currents, a lot of wind. So you find them in Norwegian North Sea, the continental shelf there. You'll find them in Eastern Canada. Actually, you'll find them in the Black Sea. We have a rig working in the Black Sea right now, and people wouldn't even realize how harsh those conditions are. And believe it or not, Australia.

Australia is quite a harsh environment. We have both semi-submersibles and we've worked drill ships in that area. So to give you context, that's kind of where the fleet kind of deploys. So very focused on really technically challenged areas, and also the harsh environment.

Lance Glinn:

And so you spent your early years working on rigs long before stepping into executive leadership. In an industry as complex and frankly as unforgiving as offshore drilling, how important is it for leaders like yourself to have had that first-hand experience, that boots-on-the-deck experience truly understand the conditions and the challenges that these crews are facing on a daily basis?

Keelan Adamson:

Yeah. I think it connects me directly back to the core of the business. Any leader will want to understand how their team has to work, what they have to work in. And for me, best years of my life were working offshore when I started working in my early 20s. And I think being able to work in the jobs or most of the jobs on board, I started scrubbing decks. And so working your way up means that you really learn and appreciate what everybody else is doing in that point of view. And so there is a phrase that says, "I won't ask anybody to do anything I wouldn't do myself." So I think that's important. And when you're an operating company, which is what we are, we own and operate vessels, drill ships and the like, and the I think it's really important that you understand what you're asking your people to do. It's really important that our customers want to have conversations about the challenges they're meeting.

It's really important, I think, to understand that. And so I think it connects you with the company. I think it connects you with your customer, and I think you're able to relay that to your shareholders and investors and perhaps explain some of the complexities and the challenges that it takes to be an offshore driller.

Lance Glinn:

And I would imagine that almost anyone who's really ever stepped onto a rig of sorts, whether it be a ship or a semi-submersible for that first time, they sort of have that unforgettable kind of first story that like, oh my gosh, I am here type of moment. That moment that when it hits you sort of understand for the next few weeks, because I know your people are there for weeks at a time, this is my life. I'm no longer on typical land. I'm now in the water, I'm on the ship, I'm on the semi-submersible. This is where my life currently is at this moment. So when you think back to your early days offshore, what sort of just were those first impressions? You said you started scrubbing decks, so what were those first impressions of like, oh my God, I am on this rig of sorts? This is my life for the next three, four, five weeks, whatever it was.

Keelan Adamson:

Yeah. When I started I was like 22. And so I was just looking for something different. I was looking to try and understand what this was about. I remember going to the library in where I was studying to try and understand anything about oil and gas. I couldn't find anything. I found maybe a few pages in the library. We didn't have the internet back then, I'm a little bit old, but it's like-

Lance Glinn:

I'll say I lived my whole life with the internet, pretty much from when I can remember.

Keelan Adamson:

That doesn't make me feel very good.

Lance Glinn:

No.

Keelan Adamson:

So it was an adventure. And so I remember somebody told me I was going to get on a chopper and a helicopter, and I was going to be transferred to the rig by chopper. And that probably pretty much sold me. But I do remember flying, I was working off the UK North Sea. That's where I kind of started. And I do remember the chopper ride, it was four hours, I think, with a bit of a break. And the chopper moved a lot in the sky. It was very-

Lance Glinn:

Because you mentioned North Sea in that harsh water.

Keelan Adamson:

Harsh area environment, and the weather was high. I do remember when we eventually got to the rig, they tied a rope from the door of the chopper to the bulkhead on the rig, and we had to pull ourselves off. We don't do that anymore, let's be clear. But at that time, that was my first impression of what it was like. And of course, it was big and it was industrial and it was a work site, and it was something very difficult to explain. A big tower in the middle of a rig, which is what we call the Derrick, a heli deck and accommodation block and all of this deck space and equipment everywhere. And so what you feel is you're in a machine, you feel like you are in this amazing industrial place. And it's a combination of how our people and our crews integrate with that and operate that equipment.

And it is a remarkable experience. And so I got that bug in my early 20s, and I loved the fact that it was just really different. It was really, really different. Not a lot of people knew about it. And if you can imagine, you're working with 100 other people on a rig, hundreds of miles away from shore. So you are essentially self-sufficient. And so you definitely feel very different, you build if you like a new family. And so we have, as we say, a work family, and we have our family, family at home. And we probably spend too much time with our work family and not enough with our home family. But it is that sort of environment.

Lance Glinn:

And so I want to sort of play off of what you just said where you have your work family, you have your family, family at home. And there are obviously, as you mentioned in your previous answer, a lot of people who will never experience what it's like to step on a rig, myself included. I don't ever foresee that in my future. Granted, who knows where life will take you. But at least as of right now, I don't foresee that in my future. So it's something I know I'll never experience firsthand. But I do think it's important to really give listeners a sense of what that life is like, what these people go through. So from your own years offshore, how would you describe the life of these people being away from their families? And really the commitment that they put into that, because that's what it is. It is a commitment of three, four, five, six weeks. I'm going to be away from my family. Whatever is going on with my family at that time, I'm going to be away from my family and be with my work family.

Keelan Adamson:

Yeah, I would love to take you to a rig. I would love to.

Lance Glinn:

I might have to hold you.

Keelan Adamson:

Yeah, I would love to take you to a rig.

Lance Glinn:

I don't know if I can convince my wife to let me go for three weeks, but maybe a few hours.

Keelan Adamson:

We can do a shorter trip. We'll do a shorter trip just to be able to... You're right. It's a great question because how do you explain what that's like? And so I think first of all, when you think about our people and you think about the people that work offshore, they're very resilient, very adventurous, very focused, and they are very committed, very dedicated to what we do. We take great pride in what we do and to perform like we do. It takes a huge degree of discipline, a huge degree of performance to professionalism to do it. So the people that work on rigs are amazing people. They are so resourceful and they have just so much ingenuity. And they're able to connect the technology with the practical application uniquely. Drilling is a bit of art and a bit of science. It takes a huge amount of experience to be good at it, which is where I think the biggest strength of Transocean is.

Our equipment is first class and I think differentiated across our peer group, but it's really about the people and the type of people that we have, the culture that we generate as a result of that. So as a crew, look at myself, I had bunches of crews and people that I work with that I remain in contact with today. We all... It's not unique actually, a lot of the management team have actually worked on rigs, and so we really connect with each other offshore. I think there's a degree of responsibility and accountability. The closest analogy I can give you is probably team sports like football.

Everybody has a role and you have to perform your role in order for the entire operation to be successful. So you end up in a situation where you rely on people very quickly in your career. Either they're training you or you're relying on them to do a piece of their job. And so this reliance, this... What's it? Your respect for what they do and your willingness to listen. You work in a team from the get-go and you learn how to play in a team well to get to the result you want. And so it's a unique experience. It's like being in a team your entire life and it really is being in a team. And you spend so long on that rig and then you come home and you go back out again. It is connections that last for lifetimes.

Lance Glinn:

Yeah. And it has to be, I would think a well-oiled machine or well-oiled team too, because like you said bringing up that football analogy, you take a look at a football field, you have the best players at all 11 positions. But if one of the 11 positions doesn't do what they're supposed to do, a defender could come through, sack the quarterback, well, there goes that whole play. It doesn't matter the talent you have, if everyone's not working cohesively then that's where things can go awry. And I do want to touch on, because obviously you're leading this business, you have shareholders in mind, you have making money at mind, obviously those are things of importance. But I would think of the utmost importance to you is safety and the safety of the people that are on these rigs, whether it be a ship or a semi-submersible. So when you're operating in deep water and these harsh environments, the stakes don't have to tell you incredibly high, safety it's not just a priority.

It's something that must be embedded really in every decision that is made from when they wake up to when they go to sleep and then start over the next day. So from a leadership perspective for you, especially in a business built around risk management, because that's essentially what it is, what does that commitment to safety look like in practice on a day-to-day?

Keelan Adamson:

Again, this is where if I could get you on a rig and you could see it and see it-

Lance Glinn:

Then I could really experience.

Keelan Adamson:

Is really easier for you to see. But imagine you land on the rig, and the first thing you see is a coordinated approach to removing just the simple things of luggage and people. And how we coordinate and how we execute the simplest of tasks is a reflection of the sort of work and sort of how we approach all of the work on board the rig.

Lance Glinn:

Every little detail.

Keelan Adamson:

Every little detail is absolutely mapped out. So it's about planning, it's about making sure everybody understands their role, it's making sure that you understand and everybody in the team understands what we're about to do. And then executing to that plan. And I would say one of the most important things to deal with the risk management, to deal with understanding the level of performance you want to get to is executing against that plan. It is the discipline that required to not drift to ensure that we're going to follow those steps because those steps are going to lead us to success. And so I would say safety for us is one of many, many core values that we have in order to run the operations as well as we want. And you talk to our customers, you talk to our people, we take great pride in being the best operator. That's our differentiating piece. But the muscle we use to manage the safety of our people is the same muscle we use to manage the reliability of our equipment, and the same muscle we use to drive the performance we get from the combination.

So the safest rig is always going to be the most highest performing rig because it comes back to how did you plan the activity, how did you assess the job site, how did you execute the plan.

Lance Glinn:

It's all connected.

Keelan Adamson:

It's all connected. And so for us, safety is right at our core. People like me and not unique, we've all worked on the rig. So there's a fundamental care that exists in our core culture. We want people who come to our rig, all people, not just our own Transocean crews, we want them to leave the rig in the same condition they came, if not better actually. And so it is built in to who we are and how we do it is not words, it's actions. And it actually is the simplest of actions that you start building as a foundation on, and it allows you to execute at a very high level. And it is very similar to the analogy of football.

Lance Glinn:

And you talked about executing to the plan and not drifting away from that plan, not essentially taking the easy way out. You might think there may be an easier way to do this, this and that. But if you make a decision that isn't the right decision, then we know things can go awry. And we know that if you stick to the plan, it's a plan that is tried and true. It's a plan that works. And to your point, as we talked about before about having a leadership team that is experienced, you do know what it is like to be there. So the importance of that safety, how that safety is managed and have experienced like you said, you arrive at a rig in one condition and you want to leave at the same condition, if not better. I do want to shift the conversation now because it's prevalent in pretty much every industry. And I know it's a large conversation or a large topic in a lot of our conversations, and that's AI and technical and technological advancement as a whole.

We're seeing AI specifically reshape industries on both the front end and the back end, regardless of the industry that we're in. And for a company like Transocean, I imagine that influence extends from the rigs offshore to the teams obviously supporting them on the land as well. So with that in mind, just briefly, how has AI really been integrated into Transocean operations? And where are you seeing its impact right now the most?

Keelan Adamson:

I think AI is just probably recently got a label. And it's interesting, we started working with technology and the data that we can generate from our equipment many, many years ago. And if you think about it, there's 10,000 probably pieces of equipment on a drill ship, and there's even thousands more components. So we get the data from our equipment pipe back to shore. We then analyze that data and we try to predict the condition of our equipment. And so several years ago we were working under a calendar-based maintenance and then into a condition-based maintenance. Now we're trying to move into preventative. We're trying to model when we can expect a particular component or a particular piece of equipment-

Lance Glinn:

Say you're ready.

Keelan Adamson:

So that you can avoid the NPT or the non-productive time. When we talk to our customers, what they're most concerned about is the predictability of their project execution. They are spending billions of dollars to develop these fields. They need to make sure they're working with partners that can predictably perform. And so all of our work with respect to data is all about how we can perform better. It's all about understanding the conditions and optimizing the performance of our equipment. But it doesn't stop there. We actually use digital data on how we manage safety. We're tracking conversations on pre-job talks, and we're able to work on, we call them leading indicators. It's too late if you're working on why did a certain result happen. You really want to get upfront, understand that you're having the right conversations, that the plan is solid.

Lance Glinn:

Yeah. It's about being proactive.

Keelan Adamson:

It's about being proactive. And so what we're finding as a result of bringing this sort of approach to our operation is it's just driving differentiated performance and service to our customers. So what I think we've been doing over time is we've been bringing a lot of data to bear and understanding that data. We're very data-driven. But what AI is going to help us with is mining it, is processing it, is allowing us to get the right information to the right people at the right time in order to make the right decisions. And if you think about drilling a well, we're making decisions all the time. Our people they're amazing. They take so much data, they cannot see the bottom of the well when they're drilling it, they're using a lot of gauges and information that's coming at them to understand what's happening down the hole. They create a picture. Imagine if we can help them process all of that data as quickly as we possibly can in order for them to make better decisions.

And so this is our drive going forward, huge opportunity, not just in the way we operate, but also the way we maintain our equipment, the way we manage our supply chain. We've got thousands of parts. You can imagine what managing an inventory of that fleet looks like, being able to process a lot of data and execute the right actions to reduce your cost structure and remove waste from your business. It's a huge opportunity for us.

Lance Glinn:

But I guess my question, you've been at Transocean for 30 years or so, with equipment and inventory that is so massive, that takes time to build, that obviously needs to be operated on a daily basis, it seems like it could be an industry that is, I guess slower to change, slower to move to not necessarily better things but to change things and evolve. Has a lot changed over the last 30 years or do you see a lot of the similarities from when you first started to how rigs are working right now? Even with the technological advancements that we have, whether it be AI, whether it be data analytics, I would still think that there are a lot of similarities to when you started scrubbing those decks to where you are now, obviously leading Transocean.

Keelan Adamson:

Yeah, you still got to scrub decks.

Lance Glinn:

Yeah, right. You tell me you don't have a Roomba just sort of going around the deck. Come on.

Keelan Adamson:

No, we don't have any of them. But what I will say is for an industry that has to be very, very conscious of risk and understand the consequences, and they can be very severe.

Lance Glinn:

Very serious.

Keelan Adamson:

The industry is remarkably good at adopting technology. It takes a long time for us to get over the line to launch it, but when we do, we know what the outcome's going to be. And so the evolution of what rigs look like today compared to when I started is miles different, miles different. So everything was kind of manual when I was working. The guys I worked with, they were big, strong and ugly. But nowadays, everything is mechanized. So we have a lot of equipment that's remote-operated, so we brought a lot of technology to bear there. I think we're moving into a more automated arena. We are driving a lot of technology and adopting technology to help us be more predictable, be more consistent by removing our operating cape, the people operating equipment, and move it into a co-pilot. Like into a move where we can push a button and the equipment will move in a certain sequence. You still need the people because they're the ones making the decisions.

Lance Glinn:

Sure. It won't be all automated, it won't be all agenetic.

Keelan Adamson:

No.

Lance Glinn:

You need that human touch.

Keelan Adamson:

You absolutely do because there's so much decisions to make. But imagine if you could free them up from the operating of the equipment and into a lot more about understanding what's going on in all avenues of what they're managing. And I think that that is the next area of human performance that we're looking at, is how do we help have our people move in that direction. So the rigs are very, very different. They're highly mechanized and there's a huge amount of technology on them now.

Lance Glinn:

Still people scrubbing decks.

Keelan Adamson:

Still people scrubbing decks. We want a clean deck. House keeping is super important.

Lance Glinn:

No, of course. And when you're out there for three, four, five weeks at a time, if not more, I'd want to live in a clean place too. What about communication wise? Because you obviously have all this data that you deal with on the rigs, you need to get it back to the teams on the land. Not trying to be funny, but obviously there is no cell service when you're hundreds of miles off the coast of wherever you might be. How has technology evolved to benefit that aspect of being able to get the data that you need back to land so that you could then transfer it over to your customers or whatnot? How is that communication?

Keelan Adamson:

And that's a great question because that's probably been the trigger for us to move into a much more data-driven environment. We needed the infrastructure that we didn't have 30 years ago, to be able to transport that information. And we need to get it real time and we need to get it as fast as we can. So there are some areas in the world where we've got fiber optic networks on the seabed, like the Norwegian North Sea, it is a huge amount of fiber optics. And so that allows them get to a point where we're operating equipment from shore. And so that happens in the land business quite a bit right now, as you can imagine. But if you're hundreds of miles offshore, getting that data back and being able to have the latency of it and the reliability of it to be at the point where you can actually operate equipment in a warehouse in town offshore, that's pretty impressive.

For most areas in the world, especially in the deep water areas, obviously we don't have that sort of capability. So we rely on the satellite network and we rely on the cell, actually the cell phone networks. And there's a lot more low satellites that are going up now that allow us to communicate a lot more, a lot easier than we were. So that capability is only improving and that infrastructure is building in place, which allows us to lever that and improve our business.

Lance Glinn:

So I want to shift to energy security just for a moment because it's become really a global priority as geopolitics intensify, and as countries look for reliable long-term sources of supply. So from your perspective, what role does offshore drilling, Transocean obviously specifically, play in providing that kind of stability for the world's energy systems?

Keelan Adamson:

Right. Not even with security, and I'll come to energy security, but if you think about the global demand for energy and you think about the role that hydrocarbons plays in that, our population in the world is only getting bigger. And the source of energy is actually depleting. And so the challenge that oil companies have today is to kind of replace that depletion and that decline rates. There's a concern that the decline rates are not going to meet the global demand. So when you put that in context, and remember there are billions of people in energy poverty. And we're in a beautiful podcast room here in the western world, and there's a developing world out there that doesn't have the same opportunity. And as a result, they don't have the same lifespan. So we believe in the role we play, we take great pride in it because it's all about bringing this energy to help that situation.

And then you think about the energy security issues that have developed over the last four or five years, and you think about the conflicts that are happening. It's in every time you open the newspaper or actually there's no newspapers anymore-

Lance Glinn:

Anytime you open your phone and-

Keelan Adamson:

You open up your phone and you're seeing what's going on. And a lot of countries, especially in Europe, are pivoting their policies to ensure that they have energy security for their people. And so that is also driving more demand for oil and gas and energy sources as a whole. So we see the picture as growth and we're going to need everything. Every piece of energy that we can bring to the table is probably less about transition and more about addition. And so from our perspective, the energy security situation is driving more demand. The need for more energy is driving demand, and also the decline rates of the existing fields. And why offshore and why deep water and why those areas? It comes back to one of my earlier points, which is these are the bigger resources.

So what you want to do is drill less wells in bigger fields and be able to extract bigger volumes. And the biggest volumes exist offshore deep water. The returns on those investments are very, very strong. And so this is why the oil companies and why you're probably reading that there's an uptick in expectation in how the demand is going to go over the next few years.

Lance Glinn:

So Keelan, let's look ahead now as we start to wrap things up. First, just when you look at the next five years to the next decade of the offshore drilling industry as a whole, not just transition but the industry as a whole, what trends do you think will really shape it? What should people keep their eye out that will really sort of move the needle in offshore drilling?

Keelan Adamson:

In terms of activity?

Lance Glinn:

In terms of activity, in terms of, we talked obviously technological advancement too. But what will really sort of dictate and shape the next five to 10 years?

Keelan Adamson:

I think what you're going to see is a lot more projects getting through, their customers are going to start approving a lot more of their projects. I think one of the bigger things that's going to happen that hasn't happened in several years, some of our customer CEOs are now starting to talk about exploration. And exploration is now becoming something that they realize and are discussing with their teams, their boards and their shareholders, we have decline rates so we need to replace those reserves. And so committing CAPEX, committing capital to dedicated exploration programs is going to be necessary. So I think you're going to see probably a bigger exploration program over the next three, four, five years as they look to find the next set of resources that are going to supply that. So I would keep an eye out on exploration activity.

In terms of rig activity, we're probably at the lowest point we've been in the last few years. And I think you're going to find that the offshore floating rig activity as an industry is going to get more and more utilized. And so we're expecting to be as an industry well into 90% utilized in '27. So watch for the rig count getting utilized more. There's some idle assets on the sideline. When we reach that point, perhaps the economics will support bringing some of that idle capacity back out. And I think there's enough assets in the world to handle the projects that we're going to need, but we need to use probably most of them.

Lance Glinn:

And that comes with bringing some of those little projects back?

Keelan Adamson:

By bringing some of that idle capacity back when the market gets strong enough. It's interesting, back in 2014, there were 328 floaters in the world working, and now probably we're working about 122.

Lance Glinn:

Wow. So those other 200 and however many are-

Keelan Adamson:

No, we've essentially recycled half of the world's fleet. So there probably is only 140 rigs, maybe even less that can go to work.

Lance Glinn:

And that ships and semis submersibles

Keelan Adamson:

Ships and semis. And so when you think about that supply has dropped by what, 50%? And the demand is still not quite there to bring that back. So it doesn't take much for the demand to move to fully utilize the existing fleet that's on the water today. And I think that bodes very, very well for Transocean and the industry as the opportunities are there and we need to get after those.

Lance Glinn:

So 100th anniversary which we started talking about at the beginning of our conversation, incredible milestone and congratulations to the whole Transocean team on reaching that century mark. So if you imagine we're sitting here 10 years from now, 20 years from now where you're celebrating 110, you're celebrating 120, whatever it may be, what are we discussing? What does the next chapter for Transocean look like?

Keelan Adamson:

I hope we're discussing how are you going to meet the future demand, you don't have enough rigs.

Lance Glinn:

Sure. We might be discussing my trip tour already.

Keelan Adamson:

And we might be reflecting on that visit. I think what we'll be talking about is we'll always be talking about our people. The people we have in our company and in the industry are remarkable. And I think that talent is entirely unique and will be core to the success of our company going forward. I think we'll be talking about technology as we always talk about technology, and we'll be trying to develop technology that builds even better performance from the fleet. And frankly, it'll enable more work because as we become more reliable as an industry to supply energy, there'll be more opportunities.

So I think we'll be talking about the opportunity of automation. We'll be talking about what AI continues to bring to bear. Somebody will be talking about how long your assets going to last and do we need to start replacing them. We'll be talking a lot about how maybe we're at a point where we've got a fully automated rig on the table that we're looking at to operate in areas that are even more extreme than we operate today. But we'll always be talking about opportunity. We'll always be talking about addressing the challenges that our industry has to meet, and we'll always be talking about the amazing people that we have in our industry that make it happen.

Lance Glinn:

Well, Keelan, first podcast in the books.

Keelan Adamson:

First podcast in the books.

Lance Glinn:

First podcast in the books. Thank you so much for the conversation and thank you so much for joining me Inside the ICE House.

Keelan Adamson:

Thank you, Lance. It's been a real pleasure and I appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about Transocean today, so thank you.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. Thanks for coming.

Keelan Adamson:

Thanks.

Speaker 3:

That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X @Icehouse podcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week inside the ICE House. Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties express or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information. And do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.