DIAMOND OFFSHORE DRILLING INC

In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, issued Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), or ASU 2016-02, which (i) requires lessees to recognize a right of use asset and a lease liability on the balance sheet for most leases, (ii) updates previous accounting standards for lessors to align certain requirements with the updates to lessee accounting standards and the revenue recognition accounting standards and (iii) requires enhanced disclosure of qualitative and quantitative information about an entity's leasing arrangements.

We adopted ASU 2016-02 effective January 1, 2019 using an optional transition method requiring leases existing at, or entered into after, January 1, 2019 to be recognized and measured under the new accounting standard. Prior period amounts have not been adjusted and continue to be reflected in accordance with our historical accounting for leases. In our adoption of ASU 2016-02, we also utilized a transition practical expedient package whereby we did not reassess (i) whether any of our expired or existing contracts contain a lease, (ii) the classification for any expired or existing leases and (iii) initial direct costs for any existing leases. The adoption of this standard resulted in the recording of operating lease assets and offsetting operating lease liabilities of $146.8 million as of January 1, 2019, with no related impact on our unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity. See Note 9.

In applying the standard, we utilize an exemption for short-term leases whereby we do not record leases with terms of one year or less on the balance sheet. We have also made an accounting policy election to not separate lease components from non-lease components for each of our classes of underlying assets, except for subsea equipment, which includes the Well Control Equipment discussed above. At inception, the consideration for the overall Well Control Equipment arrangement was allocated between the lease and service components based on an estimation of stand-alone selling price of each component, which maximized observable inputs. The costs associated with the service portion of the agreement are accounted for separately from the cost attributable to the equipment leases based on that allocation and thus, are not included in our right-of-use lease asset or lease liability balances. The non-lease components for each of our other classes of assets generally relate to maintenance, monitoring and security services and are not separated from their respective lease components.

The lease term used for calculating our right-of-use assets and lease liabilities is determined by considering the noncancelable lease term, as well as any extension options that we are reasonably certain to exercise. The determination to include option periods is generally made by considering the activity in the region or for the rig corresponding to the respective lease, among other contract-based and market-based factors. We have used our incremental borrowing rate to discount future lease payments as the rate implicit in our leases is not readily determinable.  To arrive at our incremental borrowing rate, we consider our unsecured borrowings and then adjust those rates to assume full collateralization and to factor in the individual lease term and payment structure.

Brent crude oil closed in the high $60-per-barrel level at the end of the first quarter of 2019, averaging mid-$60 per barrel for the quarter. Demand and offshore utilization continued to increase during the first quarter of 2019, with industry-wide floater utilization averaging near 65% at the end of March 2019, based on analyst reports. However, dayrates remain low compared to previous periods, as the increase in oil prices from earlier lows has not resulted in significantly higher dayrates. Industry analysts indicate that, historically, utilization rates must increase to the 80%-range before pricing power shifts to the drilling contractor from the customer. There is some optimism within the industry, and among analysts, that offshore contract drilling activity will increase over the next two years, as additional capital investments in offshore projects are made and cost efficiencies are achieved.

Operating Results. Contract drilling revenue decreased $61.2 million during the first quarter of 2019 compared to the first quarter of 2018, primarily due to lower average daily revenue earned ($30.5 million), the effect of 74 fewer revenue-earning days ($25.9 million) and the absence of $4.8 million in loss of hire insurance proceeds recognized during the first quarter of 2018 related to contract terminations for two jack-up rigs in a prior year. Comparing the two quarters, average daily revenue decreased primarily due to lower dayrates earned by some of our rigs as a result of renegotiating certain existing contracts during 2018 and a lower dayrate earned by the Ocean GreatWhite, which commenced operations under a new contract in the U.K. during the first quarter of 2019. Revenue-earning days decreased, compared to the prior year quarter, due to incremental downtime for planned shipyard projects (96 days) and fewer revenue-earning days for the Ocean Guardian, which is currently classified as held for sale (30 days), partially offset by the favorable impact of fewer mobilization and non-productive days (52 days).