SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Estimated Useful Lives of Assets

Our estimated useful lives of our various classifications of assets are as follows:

	Years
Drilling vessels and related equipment	5-35
Drill pipe	3
Furniture and other	3-10

A summary of property and equipment by classification is as follows:

	September 30,
(In thousands)	2013			2012
Drilling vessels and equipment	$	2,979,503		$	2,523,895
Construction work in progress	715,320			438,081
Drill pipe	26,743			20,576
Office equipment and other	24,439			19,610
Cost	3,746,005			3,002,162
Less: Accumulated depreciation	(581,281		)	(464,822		)
Drilling and other property and equipment, net	$	3,164,724		$	2,537,340

Computation of Basic and Diluted Earnings Per Share

The computation of basic and diluted earnings per share for each of the past three fiscal years is as follows:

(In thousands, except per share amounts)	Net Income		Shares	Per Share Amount
Fiscal 2013
Basic earnings per share	$	350,224	65,073	$	5.38
Effect of dilutive securities—
Stock options	—		354	(0.03		)
Restricted stock	—		418	(0.03		)
Diluted earnings per share	$	350,224	65,845	$	5.32
Fiscal 2012
Basic earnings per share	$	272,171	65,267	$	4.17
Effect of dilutive securities—
Stock options	—		255	(0.01		)
Restricted stock	—		259	(0.02		)
Diluted earnings per share	$	272,171	65,781	$	4.14
Fiscal 2011
Basic earnings per share	$	271,674	64,754	$	4.20
Effect of dilutive securities—
Stock options	—		245	(0.02		)
Restricted stock	—		404	(0.03		)
Diluted earnings per share	$	271,674	65,403	$	4.15