Bermuda-based Seadrill Ltd announced net income of $439 million for the first quarter and comfortably beat Wall Street’s expectations.Earnings per share for the oil and gas rig operator were 89 cents per share, beating analysts’ projections by a full 18 cents.The company also increased its quarterly cash dividend by two cents to 82 cents. Based on yesterday’s share price, this works out at an annualised yield of more than nine percent for Seadrill shareholders.In addition, Seadrill has announced it will pay an extra one-off dividend of 15 cents per share. This is related to an equal cash distribution coming from Seadrill’s investment in SapuraCrest.For the first quarter of 2012, Seadrill generated $595 million in earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation.During the quarter Seadrill secured new contracts with a total revenue potential of $870 million and Seadrill ordered two ultra-deepwater harsh environment semi-submersible rigs, at Jurong and Hyundai, for a total consideration of $1.3 billion. The company also ordered an ultra-deepwater drillship at Samsung for $600 million, to be delivered by the third quarter of 2014.Besides the previously mentioned $870 million in new contracts, Seadrill was able to secure a three-year $710 million deal for West Leo, the ultra-deepwater semi-submersible rig, plus a five-year $235 million deal on the T18, a tender rig.The price of oil has fallen by more than seven percent during the past two weeks, as concerns over slowing growth in China and the US, and a deepening sovereign debt crisis in the European Union weigh on the markets.This may have been in factor in Seadrill’s share price falling yesterday, even after results surpassed expectations.Chief executive officer Alf Thorkildsen said: “We are pleased to report another solid quarter for Seadrill reflecting a strong underlying operational performance.“Furthermore, the outlook and fundamentals for the oil and gas industry remain strong. Encouraging exploration successes in established as well as frontier basins are leading to an increasing backlog of appraisal and development drilling projects.“These strong fundamentals support the expectation of continued strength in all sectors of the contract drilling industry for the foreseeable future. As a consequence we have ordered six newbuilds in the last three months and the company now has 18 drilling units under construction. We remain bullish on the outlook for drilling services, in particular related to the demand for high-specification equipment.”Long-term trends indicate that global demand for energy will increase by about a third over the next 20 years, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency. Seadrill, which provides equipment enabling oil to be collected from the more difficult to access deepwater wells, looks well positioned to benefit from this trend.Revenue fell 5.4 percent to $1.05 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 71 cents a share on revenue of $1.03 billion.Operating margin widened to 43.4 percent from 38.7 percent. Operating profit for floaters, the company’s largest segment, rose 1.9 percent to $318 million, while the jack-up rigs business reported a 4.7 percent increase in operating profit. The tender rigs unit posted a flat profit.