OSLO (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-based Seadrill ASA rose to the highest since April as billionaire founder John Fredriksen forecast takeovers in the oil rig industry and said offshore drilling regulation after the Gulf of Mexico spill will boost earnings.

Seadrill, operator of the second-largest fleet of ultra- deepwater rigs, is looking at opportunities for consolidation, Fredriksen told reporters at a conference in Oslo yesterday. He later said "anything is possible" when asked if his company would bid for larger rival Transocean Ltd., Norwegian newswire TDN Finans reported.

Seadrill rose as much as 6.9 kroner, or 4.7 percent, to 153.9 kroner in Oslo trading. That's the highest since April 30. The shares traded at 152.2 kroner at 1:11 p.m. local time.

Stricter regulation "for offshore will come for sure, which will be fantastic for Seadrill", Fredriksen told reporters while attending the Pareto conference in Oslo. Rig rates "will surprise on the upside".

The US halted deepwater drilling for six months after an April 20 explosion on a Transocean rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and started the country's worst oil spill. BP Plc, which had hired the rig to drill a well in a mile of water, has spent more than $6 billion stopping the leak and cleaning up its damage.

Politicians from the UK to Russia have promised to consider tighter regulations on offshore drilling after the catastrophe, which spilled more than four million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

"We're looking at consolidation all the time, there are a lot of opportunities on the rig side," Fredriksen said.