Subsea 7 saw an uptick in tendering for its vessels despite “challenging” market conditions in the first three months of 2017.
The underwater installation contractor had a Q1 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $268 million, compared to £284million in the same period last year.
Quarterly net profit was stable, down $1million on last year to $146 million.
Subsea 7 put the balanced first quarter results down to “strong operational performance” and continued cost “discipline”.
New awards totaled $626 million and included the Mad Dog 2 deepwater Gulf of Mexico project that was awarded on an integrated basis with OneSubsea, a Schlumberger company.
Jean Cahuzac, chief executive officer, said: “Our excellent operational and financial results this quarter reflect consistently strong execution and sustained cost discipline.
“We continued to deliver best-in-class performance despite the industry-wide downturn. Our Adjusted EBITDA margin remained high at 30% as a result of cost savings and successful progression on several projects.
“Our early engineering activity has increased and we expect this trend to continue as the market recovers in the future.
“The award of the Mad Dog 2 project to Subsea 7 and OneSubsea on an integrated basis was a significant industry milestone.”
Active vessel utilisation was 65% in the first quarter and total vessel utilisation was 55%.
Three vessels joined the fleet, completing the group’s vessel construction programme.
The PLSV Seven Cruzeiro immediately started its long-term contract offshore Brazil and both Seven Arctic and Seven Kestrel completed crew familiarisation before mobilising for their first projects shortly after the quarter end.
Two vessels, Seven Discovery and Normand Oceanic, were released from the fleet and having completed its activities in Brazil.
Seven Mar, was stacked in the quarter.
In the North Sea, the Maria project – Wintershall’s flagship development continued to progress well.
Preparations are underway for the final offshore campaign later in the year.
The company is also focusing on the offshore renewable sector, looking to acquire the remaining 50% of Seaway Heavy Lifting that it does not already own.
This is expected to be a growth area for the contractor in years to come.
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