Drilling contractors Archer saw losses widen year on year after a decline in US activity and shutdown in the North Sea.
The company saw its half-year losses hit $67.2million after posting a second-quarter loss of $25.7million.
The Norwegian firm, which named David King as new chief executive last month, has been under pressure from main shareholder Seadrill to turn around poor results.
Earlier this year it sold off its US rental and tubular division for $244million to pay down existing debts, but losses widened this quarter as the company’s US operations were hit by a severe drop.
Rig count in the USA dropped 65%, or 220 rigs, against the same period last year.
“Our results are negatively impacted by the reduction in rig count and the shift in activity has resulted in significant pricing pressure and decreased utilization throughout most of our business lines,” the company said in a statement.
North Sea revenues rose 5.6% to $158.7million, despite a planned shutdown off Norway by one of their customers, but the company warned it expected revenues to be flat for the third quarter of the year.
The company said it was looking to the growth of Argentina as a new drilling market to balance the loss of work in Brazil and the USA.
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