Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping (OHM) said yesterday it had come through a difficult year of profound changes in the world economy.
The Aberdeen-based firm also saw its shares soar after it announced an African contract win.
OHM is a specialist in controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) imaging surveys for the oil and gas industry.
Executive chairman Dave Pratt said after OHM reported results for the year to August 31: “Although we are not out of the woods yet, the future is looking substantially more promising as confidence returns to both the financial and commodity markets, and as we begin to benefit from actions taken to reduce fixed costs and liabilities.
“OHM’s leading position in the integration of electromagnetic and acoustic measurements is delivering spectacular improvements in our ability to detect, appraise and monitor subsurface hydrocarbon accumulations.
“We believe this will place us at the forefront of this vital part of the oil service industry in years to come.
“There is still significant uncertainty around the global economy, which will continue to pose a threat to the levels of expenditure that our clients are able to make, but we are structurally better prepared to respond to a wide range of market demand.
“We look forward to the challenges of fiscal year 2010 bolstered by optimism that our strategy of investing in the integration of seismic and CSEM is building significant competitive advantage. Our optimism is supported by a growing order book across our business lines.”
Separately, the company announced the award by the Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting in China of a £1.5million CSEM survey contract offshore Equatorial Guinea.
It also said that, after negotiations with the owner of the Group’s CSEM vessels OHM Express and OHM Leader, most of the future charter liabilities for these, amounting to about £27million, had since the year-end been exchanged for equity in OHM and a revised “pay-as-when-used” agreement.
The company said yesterday that revenue for the year was £9.2million, compared with £17.7million in 2007 and £10.8million in 2008.
It said much of the decline was because of a 45% drop in OHM’s CSEM marine acquisition market to £4.4million, a percentage decline more or less in line with a similar reduction seen in the proprietary marine seismic acquisition market and reflecting low utilisation of its two dedicated vessels.
Pre-tax losses for the year were £8.7million, marginally lower than the £8.74million reported the year before and in line with market expectations.
OHM shares closed up more than 22.5% at 9.5p.