Oilfield services group Aker Solutions says a decline in the number of new orders and a lack of contracts for existing vessels helped push down second quarter earnings.
Pre-tax earnings dropped from $224.6million (1.36billion krone) in 2012 to $156million for the second quarter of 2013, as the order intake dropped by more 1.1billion krone year on year.
The company said a drop in orders, and idle time for its Aker Wayfarer and Skandi Aker vessels, along with a minor loss in its umbilicals business.
Aker also wrote down more than 375million krone after the cancellation of its Cat B rig with Statoil in June this year.
The company said the lack of new engineering work at its hubs in London and Houston had led the company to lay off temporary staff – although activity remained high at its operations in Norway.
Earnings rose at the subsea arm of the company, after picking up several big orders in the quarter – including a $440million subsea deal in the UK North Sea.
“Aker Solutions in the second quarter resolved execution problems that led to weak results at the start of the year,” said chairman Oyvind Eriksen.
“We delivered on key projects, including the Ekofisk Zulu platform, and several umbilical systems.
“We see big opportunities ahead for engineering. The current high level of activity in conceptual work indicates a new wave of engineering projects in years to come.”
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