Financial Instruments and Fair Value Disclosures

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Fair Value Disclosures [Abstract]

Financial Instruments and Fair Value Disclosures

7. Financial Instruments and Fair Value Disclosures

Concentrations of Credit and Market Risk

Financial instruments that potentially subject us to significant concentrations of credit or market risk consist primarily of periodic temporary investments of excess cash, trade accounts receivable and investments in debt securities. We generally place our excess cash investments in U.S. Treasury Bills and U.S. government-backed short-term money market instruments through several financial institutions. We periodically evaluate the relative credit standing of these financial institutions as part of our investment strategy.

Concentrations of credit risk with respect to our trade accounts receivable are limited, primarily due to the entities comprising our customer base. Since the market for our services is the offshore oil and gas industry, this customer base consists primarily of major and independent oil and gas companies, as well as government-owned oil companies. We believe that we have potentially significant concentrations of credit risk on the basis of the limited number of our rigs currently contracted and the smaller population of customers, as several customers have contracted for multiple rigs.

In general, before working for a customer with whom we have not had a prior business relationship and/or whose financial stability may be uncertain to us, we perform a credit review on that company. Based on that analysis, we may require that the customer present a letter of credit, prepay or provide other credit enhancements. Historically, we have recorded a provision for bad debts on a case-by-case basis when facts and circumstances indicated that a customer receivable may not be collectible. Losses on our trade receivables have been infrequent occurrences.

Fair Values

Fair value is defined as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. The fair value hierarchy prescribed by GAAP requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. There are three levels of inputs that may be used to measure fair value:

Level 1 Quoted prices for identical instruments in active markets.

Level 2 Quoted market prices for similar instruments in active markets; quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active; and model-derived valuations in which all significant inputs and significant value drivers are observable in active markets.

Level 3 Valuations derived from valuation techniques in which one or more significant inputs or significant value drivers are unobservable. Level 3 assets and liabilities generally include financial instruments whose value is determined using pricing models, discounted cash flow methodologies, or similar techniques, as well as instruments for which the determination of fair value requires significant management judgment or estimation or for which there is a lack of transparency as to the inputs used.

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Certain of our assets and liabilities are required to be measured at fair value on a recurring basis in accordance with GAAP. In addition, certain assets and liabilities may be recorded at fair value on a nonrecurring basis. Generally, we record assets at fair value on a nonrecurring basis as a result of impairment charges. We recorded an impairment charge related to one of our drilling rigs, which was measured at fair value on a nonrecurring basis in 2018, and have presented the aggregate loss in “Impairment of assets” in our Consolidated Statements of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Assets measured at fair value are summarized below (in thousands).

	December 31, 2019
	Fair Value Measurements Using
	Level 1		Level 2		Level 3		Assets at Fair Value
Recurring fair value measurements:
Money market funds	$	135,300	$	—	$	—	$	135,300
Total short-term investments	$	135,300	$	—	$	—	$	135,300

	December 31, 2018
	Fair Value Measurements Using
	Level 1		Level 2		Level 3		Assets at Fair Value		Total Losses for Year Ended (1)
Recurring fair value measurements:
U.S. Treasury bills	$	299,900	$	—	$	—	$	299,900
Money market funds		135,800		—		—		135,800
Short-term investments	$	435,700	$	—	$	—	$	435,700
Nonrecurring fair value measurements:
Impaired assets	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	27,225

(1) Represents impairment loss of $27.2 million recognized during 2018 related to a drilling rig whose carrying value was impaired and was subsequently sold. See Note 3.

We believe that the carrying amounts of our other financial assets and liabilities (excluding long-term debt), which are not measured at fair value in our Consolidated Balance Sheets, approximate fair value based on the following assumptions:

• Cash and cash equivalents -- The carrying amounts approximate fair value because of the short maturity of these instruments.

• Accounts receivable and accounts payable -- The carrying amounts approximate fair value based on the nature of the instruments.

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Our senior notes are not measured at fair value; however, under the GAAP fair value hierarchy, our long-term debt would be considered Level 2 liabilities. The fair value of our senior notes was derived using a third-party pricing service at December 31, 2019 and 2018. We perform control procedures over information we obtain from pricing services and brokers to test whether prices received represent a reasonable estimate of fair value. These procedures include the review of pricing service or broker pricing methodologies and comparing fair value estimates to actual trade activity executed in the market for these instruments occurring generally within a 10-day period of the report date. Fair values and related carrying values of our senior notes (see Note 9) are shown below (in millions).

	December 31, 2019				December 31, 2018
	Fair Value		Carrying Value		Fair Value		Carrying Value
3.45% Senior Notes due 2023	$	212.5	$	249.6	$	185.0	$	249.5
7.875% Senior Notes due 2025		435.0		497.1		415.0		496.8
5.70% Senior Notes due 2039		292.5		497.3		305.0		497.2
4.875% Senior Notes due 2043		408.8		749.0		416.3		748.9

We have estimated the fair value amounts by using appropriate valuation methodologies and information available to management. Considerable judgment is required in developing these estimates, and accordingly, no assurance can be given that the estimated values are indicative of the amounts that would be realized in a free market exchange.