Transocean division starts initial public offering

Oil services company Transocean said Tuesday a spinoff started its initial public offering, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol RIGP.

"Transocean Partners LLC, a Marshall Islands limited liability company formed by Transocean Ltd., announced today that it has commenced an initial public offering of 17,500,000 common units," the company said in a statement.

Transocean itself reported first quarter 2014 revenues of $2.34 billion, compared with $2.25 billion during the previous quarter.

Transocean is one of the largest offshore drilling contractors in the world, leasing mobile drilling rigs at a rate of hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. Transocean Partners owns and operates three rigs designated for the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico under long-term contracts with BP and Chevron.

Transocean leased its Deepwater Horizon rig to BP for work in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A series of cascading events caused the rig to catch fire and sink in 2010, sparking one of the worst oil spills in world history. Eleven rig workers were killed in the explosion.

Two of Transocean's flagship rigs, Deepwater Asgard and Deepwater Invictus, were listed as delayed in the company's latest fleet status report. That translates to a loss of $1.2 million in combined day rates.