For the three months ended December 31, 2009, Rowan Companies, USA, generated net income of US$60.8 million or US$0.53 per share, compared to US$94.3 million or US$0.83 per share in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Revenues were US$399.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with US$613 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Results for the fourth quarter of 2009 included US$1.4 million or US$0.01 per share of gains on asset disposals, compared with US$39.4 million or US$0.23 per share in the fourth quarter of 2008.
For the year ended December 31, 2009, the company generated net income of US$367.5 million or US$3.24 per share on revenues of US$1.8 billion, compared with a net income of US$427.6 million or US$3.77 per share on revenues of US$2.2 billion in 2008.
The 2009 results included US$5.7 million or US$0.03 per share of gains in asset disposals in 2009, compared with US$67.8 million or US$0.39 per share in 2008.
Rowan's drilling operations generated revenues of US$255.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, down by 34 percent from the prior-year quarter due primarily to lower rig utilisation. The company's gross drilling margin was 52 percent of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009, down from 62 percent in the prior-year quarter. Income from drilling operations was US$76 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, down by 66 percent from the prior-year quarter (excluding material charges).
"During the last few months, we have seen increased activity and tendering in virtually every jack-up market segment worldwide, with the Middle East, North Sea and Gulf of Mexico regions being the most significant for our fleet," said Matt Ralls, President and Chief Executive Officer.
"We continue to see good demand for higher-specification jack-ups, and have added backlog at attractive day rates for our Super Gorillas. We are especially pleased to have played a role in McMoRan's ultra-deep gas discovery, Davy Jones, in the US Gulf of Mexico, and we now have three high-spec jack-ups and the Rowan-Louisiana committed to or under contract with McMoRan.
"Additionally, we have seen a very strong recovery in the US land rig market and have reactivated or obtained commitments for several land rigs in the fourth quarter of 2009 and so far in 2010. This pickup in activity for Rowan's high quality land rig fleet is all the more impressive considering that there remain nearly one thousand idle land rigs in North America."