Transocean Ltd. ‘s fourth-quarter profit fell 49% as the offshore oil driller reported higher costs and a decline in fleet utilization. The quarterly results are the first since Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor, in November detailed a plan to put some of its drilling rigs into a master limited partnership and take it public. The move was aimed to placate activist investor Carl Icahn , but also embraces a trend in the energy sector as other companies move to unload pipelines, refineries and drilling rigs into such partnerships, which don’t pay corporate income taxes and pay out most of their cash flow to investors in the form of distributions like a dividend. In the latest quarter, Transocean reported a profit of $233 million, or 64 cents a share, down from $456 million, or $1.26 a share, a year earlier. Excluding impairments, tax benefits and other items, adjusted […]