Losses widened in the fourth quarter at Aker Solutions as the Norwegian energy services firm battled against the global market slowdown
Aker’s revenues decreased to NOK 6.1billion (£585million) in the quarter from £757million a year earlier.
The company posted a pre-tax loss of £22.3million in the quarter compared with a loss of £14.9million a year earlier.
Its board will recommend not making a dividend payment for 2016.
“While Aker Solutions had a solid financial position at the end of 2016, the board deems it prudent to exercise caution amid continued uncertainty about the outlook for the oil and gas industry,” Aker said in a statement.
But Aker, which has a base in Aberdeen, said it had delivered strong execution on major projects globally and had completed two-thirds of a program to boost cost-efficiency across the business by at least 30% by the end of 2017.
During the three month block, Aker won £393million in orders, including two contracts from DEA to deliver the subsea production system maintenance and services at Norway’s Dvalin development.
Aker also bought 70% of Brazilian firm CSE Mecanica e Instrumentacao.
Its order backlog was £3billion at the end of the quarter, about 60% of which was for projects outside Norway
Aker chief executive Luis Araujo said: “Our companywide operational improvements gathered pace in the quarter, supporting margins amid the sustained slowdown in the oil and gas industry.
“We are also benefiting from a solid financial position and good customer relationships as we quarter-by-quarter deliver consistently strong execution on projects from Norway to Brazil and Africa.”
The company said the outlook for oil services “remained challenging”, but that there were some signs of a recovery, primarily in the brownfield segment.
It thinks oil prices will stabilise at a higher level in 2017, while break-even costs are coming down on developments.
“This is expected to spur new industry investments and project sanctions this year,” Aker added.