OSLO (Bloomberg) - Seadrill Ltd., the offshore drilling company founded by billionaire John Fredriksen, said third-quarter profit climbed more than four-fold as it booked a gain from an asset sale. The company declared a dividend.

Net income attributable to the parent rose to $325 million, or 78 cents a share, from $69.3 million, or 18 cents, a year earlier, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said today in a statement. That beat the $279 million average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Seadrill has benefited from a focus on rigs that can drill in deep water, where most of the discoveries are being made. It is studying setting up a separate company for its jack-up rig holdings, which it is reorganising as it shifts resources to the deep-water business. It booked a $178 million gain from the sale of the West Ceres jack-up rig in the quarter.

"The full-year results for 2009 will confirm a positive trend that we expect will continue in 2010 and 2011 with the delivery of a further three deep-water units, three tender rigs and three jack-ups," the company said in the statement.

Revenue advanced to $863 million from $566.2 million, on an order backlog of $10.9 billion. The company has 32 drilling units in operation and nine under construction, according to the statement.

Seadrill, which is run from Norway, plans to pay a 50-cent cash dividend. The company said in August that it wanted to reinstate a limited cash dividend in the second half and establish a stable long-term dividend in 2010. It last paid a dividend of 30 cents a share in September 2008.

The company also announced it does not expect to have a "major loss" related to its West Atlas drilling rig, badly damaged in a fire off the coast of Australia following the country's third-worst oil spill.

"There won't be a major loss related to this because the rig is well insured," CEO Alf Thorkildsen said in a phone interview yesterday, without elaborating.

The West Atlas rig was insured for $200 million by a syndicate of companies in London and in Norway, Mr. Thorkildsen said, without naming them. The unit has a book value of $143 million, he added.

West Atlas caught fire on November 1 along with PTT Exploration & Production plc.'s Montara wellhead platform.

The blaze broke out during attempts to plug a leak by pumping heavy mud into the well, according to PTTEP Australasia, a unit of PTT Exploration & Production.

The leak has now been stopped and the fire extinguished.