BARDEX PROVIDES CANTILEVER SKIDDING SYSTEM ON OCEAN NUGGET

GOLETA, California, U.S.A., April 4, 2002

GOLETA, California, U.S.A., April 4, 2002--Bardex Corporation of Goleta, California has provided a subsidiary of Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE:DO) of Houston, Texas with an upgraded cantilever rig skidding system for future use on the offshore drilling rig, Ocean Nugget.

The Bardex system consists of two 550 ton push/pull capacity gripper jack assemblies and a hydraulic power unit with control console assembly. Bardex had previously supplied a similar cantilever skidding system for use on the Ocean Warwick, another offshore drilling rig in Diamond Offshore's fleet, which consists of 30 semi-submersibles, 14 jack-ups and one drill-ship, operating in the waters of six of the world's seven continents.

Bardex designs and manufactures a wide range of heavy load moving, handling and positioning systems for the offshore and shipyard industries. These include hydraulic rig skidding systems; hydraulic actuated systems for BOP handling, pipe handling, riser pull-in and hang-off, BOP capture, and BOP bridge crane movement; and hydraulic actuated systems for TLP tendon installation/tensioning, and spar/DDCV and FPS/FPSO mooring.

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