Profile: Pride International, Inc. (PDE)

Pride International, Inc. (Pride) is an offshore drilling contractor operating, as of February 02, 2009, a fleet of 44 rigs, consisting of two deepwater drillships, 12 semisubmersible rigs, 27 jackups and three managed deepwater drilling rigs. The Company has four ultra-deepwater drillships under construction. Its customers include integrated oil and natural gas companies, state-owned national oil companies and independent oil and natural gas companies. Pride’s operations are conducted in oil and natural gas basins, including South America, the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. It provides contract drilling services to oil and natural gas exploration and production companies through the use of mobile offshore drilling rigs in United States and international waters. Pride provides the rigs and drilling crews and is responsible for the payment of operating and maintenance expenses. In addition, it also provides rig management services on a variety of rigs, consisting of technical drilling assistance, personnel, repair and maintenance services and drilling operation management services. In August 2009, the Company completed the spin-off of Seahawk Drilling, Inc.

In February 2008, the Company completed the sale of its fleet of three self-erecting, tender-assist rigs. In May 2008, it sold its entire fleet of platform rigs and related land, buildings and equipment.

The company’s drillships, including the four under construction, are deepwater, self-propelled drillships that can be positioned over a drill site through the use of a computer-controlled thruster (dynamic positioning) system. Its semisubmersible rigs, which consist of all of Pride’s deepwater and midwater fleet other than its two drillships, are floating platforms, which by means of a water ballasting system, can be submerged to a predetermined depth so that a substantial portion of the lower hulls, or pontoons, is below the water surface during drilling operations. The jackup rigs the Company operates are mobile, self-elevating drilling platforms equipped with legs that are lowered to the ocean floor until a foundation is established to support the drilling platform. s

Pride performs rig management services for drilling operations for three deepwater rigs owned by others, located offshore Angola and in the United States Gulf of Mexico. Its services consist of providing technical assistance, personnel, repair and maintenance services and drilling operation management services. The drilling equipment, which it operates on behalf of our customers, is installed on a variety of supporting structures, including tension-leg platform, spar and semisubmersible hull designs. The Company provides contract drilling and related services to a customer base that includes large multinational oil and natural gas companies, government-owned oil and natural gas companies and independent oil and natural gas producers.