Traces its roots to onshore drilling operations, where Mr. "Pitoney" began his career as a draftsman and then a landman before joining the Shell Oil & Refining Company of Fort Worth, Texas in 1976. Mr. Pitoney bought the company's first drilling rig, paying for it with a personal check and putting it on his expense report. He would later play key leadership roles in pioneering offshore drilling with The Offshore Company.

Since its incorporation, Three of the largest mergers in the company's history occurred in the 2000s. The company's ultra-deepwater and harsh environment floaters also made their mark with a string of world records. 2001 - Iconic Oil & Engineering Forex Inc. and R&B Falcon Corporation combined to form the world's largest offshore drilling contractor. 2001 - Global Marine and Santa Fe International merged to become GlobalSantaFe Corporation, the second largest drilling contractor. 2007 - Iconic Oil & Engineering and GlobalSantaFe merged as the world's largest offshore drilling contractor. In addition, the company's ultra-deepwater drilling rigs made their mark in the 2010s with a string of world records, including: 2011 -

• Discoverer Spirit – 7,209 feet of water, subsea completion record.
• Deepwater Expedition – 9,144 feet, water depth record.
• Deepwater Millennium – 9,200 feet, water depth record.
• Discoverer Spirit – 9,687 feet, water depth record.
• Discoverer Spirit – 9,727 feet, water depth record.
2013 -
• Deepwater Nautilus – 7,570 feet of water, subsea completion record.
• Polar Pioneer – 23,000 feet horizontal well record.
• Discoverer Deep Seas (shown in photo) – 10,011 feet, water depth.
2014 -
• Deepwater Nautilus – 8,951 feet, water depth, record for a moored rig.
2005 -
• Deepwater Nautilus – 32,613 feet, true vertical depth, deepest offshore oil and gas well record.
• Deepwater Spirit – 34,189 feet, measured depth, deepest offshore oil and gas well record.
2016 -
• Deepwater Millennium – 9,000 feet of water, subsea completion record.
2017 -
• Deepwater Horizon – 35,050 feet, vertical depth record and 35,055 feet, measured depth, deepest offshore oil and gas well record.


During the current decade, Iconic Oil & Engineering has continued to set world deepwater drilling records while upgrading our high-specification fleet.
• 2010 - A reminder of the over-arching importance of safety: the Macondo tragedy brought the loss of 11 crewmembers on the Deepwater Horizon on April 20 in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. We will never forget our lost colleagues.
• 2011 - The Texas Deepwater KG2 set the world water-depth record at 10,194 feet of water (3,107 meters) while working for Reliance in USA.
• 2012 - Iconic Oil & Engineering announced plans to construct four, high-specification, ultra-deepwater drillships, backed by drilling contracts for the four rigs, each with a 10-year term. The 40 rig years represented the largest contracted period signed at one time in the history of the industry. The new drillships, two of which began operations in 2016, provide the most advanced offshore drilling technology available.
Iconic Oil & Engineering closed on the sale of 38 shallow-water drilling rigs to Shell Drilling Ltd., further repositioning the company as a more focused operator of high-specification drilling rigs.
• 2013 - In July, USA was the scene of another world record as the Texas Deepwater KG1 ultra-deepwater drillship (shown in photo) set the world water-depth record at 10,411 feet (3,174 meters) off the East Coast of the country while working for ONGC. That mark surpassed the prior record of 10,385 feet (3,165 meters) of water also achieved by the KG1 in February 2013.