Maersk Drilling has said it is “on track” to deliver its 2019 goals despite a £4m pre-tax loss for the first half of the year.
The rig operator said its balance sheet was “robust” in the face of “challenging markets”.
From a pre-tax perspective, the £4million loss compares to a profit of £95m in the first half of 2018.
Revenues were £510m, compared to £607m in the first half of 2018, while profit before depreciation and amortisation, impairment losses and special items (EBITDA before special items) also dropped from £253m to £189m.
However, the firm said it is “on track” to delivering EBITDA before special items of £327m for the full 2019 calendar year.
Meanwhile order backlog increased to £1.83bn in the first half of the year.
The period also saw new contracts in the UK for the Maersk Resilient with Independent Oil and Gas and Maersk Resolute with Perenco, while Maersk Innovator got an extension with Cnooc at the Buzzard field.
CEO Jorn Madsen said: “In the first half of 2019, we delivered according to plan and remain well on track to deliver our full-year guidance. We managed to grow our backlog to USD 2.3bn improving the future revenue visibility.
“In light of the challenging markets, I am pleased with our continued industry-leading operating margin, positive free cash flows and robust balance sheet.”
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