Despite the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19, Tidewater is seeing improvement in the offshore sector.
The Houston-based, New York-listed company reported a $29.5m loss for the three months to 30 June.
The performance was better than the second quarter of 2020, when the company reported a $110m loss, and narrower than the first quarter's $35.3m loss.
Chief executive Quintin Kneen said the improvement in the sector saw the company reactivate seven ships for use in Europe, the Mediterranean and West Africa during the quarter.
"We continue to monitor the Covid-19 Delta variant," Kneen said in a statement alongside earnings.
"Similar to the steps we took in 2020 to protect our employees and our cash-generation capability, we will take appropriate steps to continue to safeguard our employees and optimize our business as these later phases of the pandemic unfold.
"We have not seen a significant impact to our operations due to the Delta variant, although we were originally anticipating the additional costs of the pandemic to wane throughout 2021 and we now anticipate those costs to continue at the same level for the next few quarters.
"The new phase of the pandemic, however, doesn’t seem to be limiting broader market inertia and, in fact, we continue to see activity increase in most geographic regions."
Revenues for the second quarter came in at $90m, down from $102m year-over-year, but up from the $83.5m reported in the first quarter.
Tidewater also said it had 14 vessels remaining as held for sale, after scrapping seven for $18.6m.
Kneen also trumpeted the company’s $26m in free cash flow, which it began focusing on after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last March. Tidewater said it had produced $84m in free cash flow over the last 12 months.
"The scalable shore base infrastructure we built over the past few years is helping us drive reliable and increasing free cash flow generation, as demonstrated by the substantial incremental operating income margins in the quarter," he said.
