Teekay Offshore Partners has seen its third quarter profit squeezed due to lower utilisation and seasonal maintenance.

The shipowner reported adjusted earnings of $10m, compared to $23.6m in the corresponding quarter of 2015.

Its revenue during a quarter highlighted by a fresh North Sea deal with oil majors was $286.3m, up from $284.5m a year earlier.

Outgoing chief executive Peter Evensen said: “The partnership’s results for the third quarter of 2016 were negatively affected primarily by the seasonal maintenance of the North Sea oil fields, lower utilisation in our towage fleet, higher operating expenses in our FPSO fleet and the redelivery of the Varg FPSO at the end of July 2016.”

Evensen is more optimistic over the fourth quarter, when he expects to improve the distributable cash flow of the company thanks to lower operating costs.

Teekay Offshore’s liquidity as of the end of September stood at $398m.

Evensen added: “We continue to focus on the execution of our existing growth projects, which are scheduled to deliver through early-2018.”

Teekay Offshore is expecting a delay and additional costs in respect of the upgrade of the Petrojarl FPSO I in Brazil.

In the new era of the company without Evensen, Ingvild Saether will be the new president and chief executive of Teekay Offshore.

“Ingvild has led a team that has consistently improved results from our shuttle tanker business as well as strategically positioned us for future opportunities within this segment,” Evensen said.