ODECO
Diamond Offshore’s roots date back to May 1953, when Alden J. (Doc) Laborde founded Ocean Drilling and Exploration Co. (ODECO) in New Orleans. Laborde had designed what was probably the first submersible drilling rig. After finding a financial backer in Charlie Murphy of Murphy Oil Co., a grateful Laborde built the rig in 1954 and named the unit Mr. Charlie in honor of his benefactor. Today, the Mr. Charlie is a museum and training facility in Morgan City, Louisiana.
After noticing the stability of submersible rigs when they were only partially submerged for relocation, Laborde designed and constructed the first purpose-built semi-submersible rig, Ocean Driller, in 1964. ODECO rigs continued to rack up “firsts” in the industry in the 1970s, with Ocean Viking discovering the giant Ekofisk oil field for Phillips Petroleum Company in the North Sea and Ocean Victory discovering the Piper and Claymore fields, also in the North Sea, for Occidental Petroleum.
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