Valaris (Ensco Company)

Valaris, previously Ensco, is one of the largest companies in the offshore oil drilling industry. Based in London, it has been operating for over 25 years and stresses safety. Valaris is known for consistently outperforming and exceeding the industry’s average safety standards, including implementing extensive employee training.

Valaris History

Ensco’s history begins in 1987 as Blocker Energy Corporation and then Energy Services Company, Inc., founded in Dallas, Texas. To expand quickly, the company made important acquisitions, including Dual Drilling and Penrod Drilling.

The company’s original service was contract drilling, but it quickly branched out to include marine transportation and engineering services. In 1995, the company’s name changed to Ensco.

By the early 2000s, Ensco had grown its fleet to include deep water and ultra-deepwater rigs and semisubmersible vessels to serve the deepest oil drilling in the world.

The company also focused on acquiring and using jackup rigs, a mobile and self-elevating platform. Continuing acquisitions helped the company grow until it became the second-largest offshore fleet in the world. By 2010, the company had moved its headquarters to London.

In 2019, Ensco merged with Rowan Companies, another large offshore drilling company. EnscoRowan changed its name to Valaris in July 2019.

Valaris’s Vision and Values

Valaris includes worker safety as part of its overall vision, an impressive statement from a company in an industry that typically sees so many injuries and even deaths due to negligence or carelessness.

The company also lists its values as:

• Ethical behavior
• Not causing harm to people, the environment, or property
• Achieving success for employees, shareholders, and customers
• Having a can-do attitude
• Providing operational excellence

The company’s vision is to have a zero-incident workplace and to be the obvious choice of clients and employees.

Valaris’s Fleet

Valaris claims to have one of the most technically advanced fleets in the industry. The fleet includes 40 jackup platforms, 14 semisubmersibles, and nine drill ships, with an average age of just four years.

The company also has several other vessels under construction, some of which will be added to the fleet later and some sold. The drill ships use advanced technological systems for driller and mud controls, station keeping, hoisting, and blowout prevention.

Valaris has the world’s largest fleet of jackups, which are mobile and self-elevating platforms. The jackups include some models designed for harsh environments and others made for high specifications.

Valaris’s fleet of semisubmersible rigs are ultra-deepwater rigs, able to drill in water as deep as 8,500 feet. The company developed its proprietary design based on customer feedback.

The company claims its semisubmersible rigs can drill in almost every deepwater oil field globally. The Valaris Fleet operates around the world, off the coasts of six continents, and has experience drilling in every major basin globally.

Worker Safety at Valaris

Valaris takes great pride in its fleet, which has advanced technologies, more jackup platforms than any other company, impressive submersible rigs, and equipment designed to work in almost any underwater oil field worldwide.

The company claims to prioritize safety above technological success. Many of its top honors are related to safety. For five years, it has ranked the highest among all other offshore oil drillers in the Customer Index of Global Oilfield Suppliers.

The company’s statistics are impressive. They show that year after year, Valaris has fewer safety incidents and less lost time because of incidents than the industry average.

Fatalities are much lower than the industry average, and Valaris has only had three deaths between 2008 and 2016.

To maintain such an impressive record in the face of a dangerous industry, Valaris outlines a strict safety policy. The list of procedures includes:

• Always working with the company vision and values in mind, which put safety first
• Using annual goals to hit safety and environmental targets and targets for employee behavior
• Allocating enough resources and personnel to ensure that prevention is integral to the safety record

Training is also a big part of Valaris’s safety record. Lack of training is a common source of accidents and injuries in the maritime industry. Valaris invests the time and money necessary to ensure workers are highly trained and less likely to make dangerous mistakes on the job.

Accidents at Valaris

Despite its clear commitment to safety, Valaris has experienced accidents. One incident occurred on a platform in the North Sea in 2016. A crane boom collapsed, damaging a nearby vessel. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Workers failed to check a limit switch that would have prevented the crane from lifting too high.

A more recent accident occurred in 2024 when an 85-kilogram perspex object dropped on one of the company’s rigs. As with the crane accident, no one was hurt. That there were no injuries was pure luck. The cause of the accident was again a worker’s mistake. No one ensured the lifting equipment was compatible with the object type and weight.

Compensation for Maritime Injuries and Accidents

Valaris may be a maritime company devoted to safety and ethical operations, but not all are this diligent. If you have been injured at a maritime job, you could face a lot of burdensome expenses and may not even be able to return to work.

As a maritime or offshore worker, you can seek compensation, but your employer may try to give you less than you are owed. Laws protect maritime workers, including the Outer Continental Shelf Land Act. 

If you have been hurt or lost a loved one to the maritime industry, talk to a professional maritime attorney. Do this before signing anything or agreeing to any settlement or offer. A lawyer can help you decide if you are entitled to more under the law and will guide you as you fight back against your employer to get it.