Ensco buys rival Pride for $7.3bn

Ensco is buying rival Pride International for about $7.3bn (£4.5bn) in a deal that will create the world's second-largest offshore oil and gas driller, behind Transocean. The deal will give Ensco, which is UK-based but listed in New York, new access to lucrative deepwater markets off Brazil and west Africa.

Ensco's fleet of rigs is deployed in the Gulf, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and the deal will add Pride's nine rigs in Brazil and five rigs off the west coast of Africa.

The new company will have 21 deepwater drilling rigs, giving it a strong position in the most lucrative segment of the offshore market, which often pays rig owners more than $500,000 per day.