Danish shipping giant Maersk yesterday said its North Sea floating production vessel Gryphon should be back in action by the end of the year.
The ship came off station in a storm in February last year, breaking four anchor chains and subsea infrastructure.
It had been hoped she would be back in the field 175 miles north-east of Aberdeen and producing by the third quarter of this year.
The ship was still in Rotterdam last night however, where she underwent repairs, and Maersk said Gryphon would not now start up until the fourth quarter.
The update was given as Maersk Oil North Sea’s parent AP Moller Maersk announced its first-half results.
The shipping and oil group raised its profit guidance on the back of a further recovery in container freight rates after its Maersk Line business – a barometer of world trade because its fleet carries more than 15% of all seaborne containers – returned to profitability in the second quarter.
Group revenue for the first half was £18.8billion, down 1% compared with the same period in 2011, with pre-tax profits down 40% at £2.2billion.
Group chief executive Nils Andersen said: “We deliver a fairly satisfactory result for the second quarter and we are on the right track.
“Container rates have improved, Maersk Line is back in black figures and our other core growth businesses are executing well on strategy.”
Revenue in the group’s oil business – which includes Maersk North Sea – fell to £3.3billion in the first half, down from £4.1billion in the same period in 2011.
This was on the back of a 21% slump in production in the first half, at 269,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
In the second quarter, Maersk’s UK production dropped 17% year-on-year to 26,000boepd.
“The decline was in line with expectations,” said Maersk, citing a lower share of production in Qatar and from maturing fields off Denmark and the UK.
However, the firm, which has a growth programme in the UK, said it was drilling two exploration wells in the UK.
It added that it was also analysing results of appraisal drilling on the Jackdaw and Courageous discoveries and that it had put in bids for 22 blocks in the 27th licensing round.
Further exploration drilling was expected this year, it said, with two exploration wells planned in the Dumbarton and the non-operated Golden Eagle areas.
In March, Maersk Oil UK’s managing director Martin Rune Pedersen said the firm was looking to create 200 jobs in the city as the firm grew.
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