Norway's Boa Offshore has spotted some green shoots of recovery in the stricken North Sea oil and gas sector.
The financially restructured owner of construction ships, anchor-handling tug supply units, dredging barges and tugs said its short to medium outlook had worsened dramatically over the first six months of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and oil price falls.
The disruption caused a drop in demand for oil of at least 20%, compared to the first half of 2019.
Boa still expects a number of sanctioned developments to be postponed, while new projects will be paused, and brownfield and maintenance activities halted.
Demand recovery is still uncertain, the company said.
But Boa added: "A few new projects to be sanctioned are starting to emerge again, again with high uncertainty with regards to magnitude and timing.
Wind sector provides hope
"On a positive note, growth in the offshore wind market seems to continue, leaving some opportunities for alternative work outside the traditional oil and gas market," the company said.
Boa said its barge and tug divisions are exposed to more industries and demand drivers than oil and gas and remain relatively more stable and robust.
"However, due to the general economic contraction and above-mentioned logistical challenges it is expected that these two segments also will be negatively impacted by Covid-19 to a certain extent," the shipowner said.
Boa added: "Current market activity is relatively low, and there are very few new contract opportunities out in the market."
Net profit in the second quarter was NOK 272m ($30.5m), up from a loss of NOK 0.05m in the same period of 2019, after it cut operating costs to NOK 148m from NOK 173m. It was also boosted by unspecified financial income of NOK 277m.
This boosted the six-month profit to NOK 247m.
Cash and cash equivalents stood at NOK 313m from NOK 267m a year ago.
Ebitda for the period was NOK 56.6m, down from NOK 65.2m in 2019. Revenue dipped to NOK 168.2m, versus NOK 200.2m.
