LONDON, January 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Companies within the oil and natural gas drilling and exploration industry continue to improve as demand remains in their favor and contract activity picks up. StockCall has initiated Technical Coverage on Transocean Ltd. and Noble Corporation. Sign up today for free to download reports on these companies at http://www.stockcall.com/research

Drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is garnering some of the most attention again for shallow and deep water focused companies alike. Demand levels are also steadily improving which in turn has led to higher day rates and more profitable operations. The vast majority of Deepwater Horizon disaster related fines and expenses are also behind most companies allowing them to resume growth-minded activities. Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG), which had seen shares tumbled drastically for months after the 2010 oil spill and a few years following that ill-fated day is still trading under its pre-spill value, has recently announced that it will pay $1.4 billion in penalties. This amount will include $400 million in criminal penalties and $1 billion in civil penalties. As the company closes a dark chapter in its history, Transocean's shareholders can take solace in the fact that the largest offshore drilling company in the world has a backlog that is worth approximately $30 billion. Access StockCall technical analysis report on Transocean Ltd. at http://www.StockCall.com/RIG011713.pdf    

Currently, supply and demand ratios are heavily in favor of drillers. This will likely shift slightly as drilling and exploration activity rises but several companies within the industry could be considered undervalued.

Investors may want to be patient with companies like Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE) [Free Report on NE] ^[1] whose new contracts and extensions do not begin until the second quarter. Noble is currently in rough waters as it carries on experiencing downtime which has been particularly negatively on its earnings as indicated in its last financial report. In its third quarter, 2012, the drilling company saw earnings of $112 million, or $0.45 per share, which missed estimates. Earnings were down 15.1% from the year ago numbers on the back of prolonged downtime from rigs in GoM and offshore Brazil.

Fiscal cliff wary companies delayed capital expenditures which subsequently pushed many deals back. See how companies in this industry have performed over the past years and what 2013 reserves for them. Register today for free at http://www.stockcall.com/register      

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1. Noble Corp. Technical Analysis [ http://www.StockCall.com/NobleCorporation011713.pdf ]

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