Rowan Companies Gets Drillship Rowan Resolute Using ISQM - Analyst Blog

Rowan Companies plc's (RDC) share price rose by 1.5% on the news of it receiving the delivery of its second ultra deepwater drillship, Rowan Resolute.

The newbuild, the second in a series for global offshore drilling contractor Rowan Companies, following sister ship Rowan Renaissance, was built by ABS in the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) yard in Ulsan, South Korea.

Rowan Resolute is the second drillship to earn ABS' Integrated Software Quality Management (ISQM) notation. ISQM was developed by ABS to address the issue of software verification and integration so as to reduce the time before first production.

Earlier, classification societies focused on the physical assets. ABS' ISQM marks a change and is the first verified approach to provide a clear process for lowering software-related risks throughout the life of an asset.

Rowan Companies, which is the first to implement a structured software quality management approach, is satisfied with the process. It has also witnessed the results in the commissioning of the first ISQM drillship, Rowan Renaissance, which left the HHI yard early in 2014 and began working in late April.

Rowan is a provider of international and domestic contract drilling and aviation services. It also operates a mini-steel mill, a manufacturing facility that produces heavy equipment for the mining, timber and transportation industries and a drilling products group that designs or builds about one third of all mobile offshore jackup drilling rigs.

The company's fleet of 34 jackup rigs is located worldwide, including the Middle East, the North Sea, Trinidad, Southeast Asia and the Gulf of Mexico (GoM).

At present, Rowan Companies carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the same sector could consider stocks like Weatherford International plc (WFT), Sanchez Energy Corp. (SN) and Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P (SXL). All of these have a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and are expected to outperform the market over the next few months.