Norway's Solstad Offshore has outlined a couple of positives for an under-pressure offshore vessel sector.
The restructured Oslo-listed company entered 2020 with expectations of gradually higher activity, but the Covid-19 pandemic and the oil price fall put paid to that.
There is still uncertainty over the future direction of oil and gas markets, Solstad said.
"There are reasons to believe that the activity in general will be reduced compared to earlier expectations, but that activity linked to production will be less affected than activity linked to exploration and maintenance," the company added.
And it said: "On the more positive side, the activity within offshore wind continues to grow. Not only in Europe, but also in other areas and particularly Asia."
Solstad has recently won a contract in the development phase of an offshore wind project in Taiwan and will compete for more renewables work.
"A continuing weak market will impact future earnings and utilisation," the company warned, however.
Its counter-party risk has also increased, and contracts may be cancelled or not renewed if a sustained challenging market situation continues, the shipowner added.
Solstad said it has so far avoided any virus-related disruptions to its operations and will continue to enforce proper measures to minimise the risk level for seafarers.
Loss grows in second quarter
The Lars Peder Solstad-led company logged a net loss of NOK 805m ($92.5m) in the second quarter, compared to NOK 342.5m in 2019.
The 127 ships brought in revenue of NOK 1.33bn, against NOK 1.37bn a year ago.
The six-month loss is now NOK 3.05bn.
Solstad managed utilisation for the operational fleet of 79% in the quarter, versus 89% last year.
Adjusted Ebitda for the second half was NOK 694m, compared to NOK 663m in 2019.
Solstad booked impairment charges of NOK 960m in the three months to 30 June.
The company's equity is negative to the tune of NOK 7bn.
Its contract backlog is NOK 8bn, with NOK 3.6bn of this due in the next 12 months.
