Transocean Ltd.'s revenue fell 29% in the third quarter as the oil driller continued to grapple with the impact of an global oil supply glut.

Fleet utilization declined to 70%, from 75% in the previous quarter and the year-ago period. Contract backlog was $16.9 billion as of the company's most recent fleet status report on Oct. 26, continuing a downward trend and showing no sign of easing pressure on the Switzerland-based company as oil trades below $50 a barrel.

Shares, down 8% this year, fell 2% to $16.50 in after-hours trading.

Transocean, which boasts the world's largest fleet of offshore drilling rigs, is trying to recover from an ill-timed expansion just before oil prices collapsed. It has sharply cut its number of rigs, taking some out of service and scrapped others. In February, it slashed its dividend to 60 cents a share from $3. Last month, shareholders approved canceling the third and fourth dividend payouts of the year. Shareholders also approved an adjustment to the stock's face value, or par value, to align it with market price.

Meanwhile, the oil-price slump has also impaired results of the master limited partnership it formed to boost its financial structure and mollify friction with billionaire investor Carl Icahn. Shares of Transocean Partners LLC, closed at $11.53 on Wednesday, down 21% for the year.

Over all, Transocean reported a profit of $321 million, or 88 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $2.22 billion, or $6.12 a share. The year-ago results included $2.8 billion in impairment charges.

Excluding impairments and other tax items, profit was 87 cents a share, down from 96 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue fell 29% to $1.61 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected adjusted profit of 71 cents a share on $1.6 billion in revenue.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 04, 2015 17:45 ET (22:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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