Page 14 - Euroil Week 08 2020

EurOil
NEWS IN BRIEF
EurOil
drilling market throughout 2019. Although the pace of the recovery has slowed down at the beginning of 2020, Seadrill expects continued market recovery over the remainder of the year.
According to its report on February 27, Seadrill’s revenues in the fourth quarter
of 2019 were $398mn, an 8% increase compared to the prior quarter and revenues of $367mn and also an increase when compared to Q4 2018 and revenues of $292mn
The sequential increase was primarily due to higher reimbursable and other revenues relating to rigs managed on behalf of Northern Drilling and Sonadrill. These were partially offset by lower contract revenues due to a full quarter of idle time for the West Saturn and West Carina, idle time for the West Gemini prior to starting its contract in Angola, the West Jupiter completing its contract and the West Tellus starting a new contract
at a lower dayrate. Additionally, the Libongos rig in Angola started working and consequently Seadrill has started to recognize revenue from its management services agreement with Sonadrill.
Seadrill’s net loss in Q4 2019 was $199mn versus a loss of $521mn in Q3 2019 and a loss of $360mn in Q4 2018.
The company’s order intake of $1bn resulted in total backlog of $2.5bn at year- end of which approximately $720mn is expected to be consumed in 2020.
Anton Dibowitz, CEO, commented: “We have seen a broad-based market recovery through 2019, led by the harsh environment segment, followed by the high specification jack-up and the benign environment ultra-deepwater segments. The pace of the recovery has slowed as we enter 2020, however we expect to
see continued improvement as the year progresses.
“Our first bank maturities do not fall due until Q2 2022, however we took the initiative to engage in a dialogue with our banks at an early stage to address capital structure challenges relative to current trading conditions. We have been engaged in a productive dialogue with the lead banks throughout the fourth quarter and into 2020 and we expect to provide a fuller update at the appropriate time.”
At the end of the quarter, Seadrill had six floaters operating and one contracted in the future.
Seadrill said that, while there are limited opportunities to reactivate idle floaters, the company expects to see some opportunities for reactivations in the high specification jack-up market later in 2020.
Seadrill said in the report: “Throughout 2019 we have seen an improvement in market fundamentals with increased tendering activity, utilization and dayrates which we expect to continue over the long- term. Although the pace has slowed as we enter 2020 we expect continued market recovery over the remainder of the year.
Seadrill added: “While we have seen improvements across all three segments they continue to recover at varying rates. The harsh environment remains the tightest market, particularly in Norway where we continue to see strong dayrates and marketed utilization trending towards 90%. In the benign environment market we may see some near term pressure
on dayrates whilst an oversupply from contract conclusions sees customers seeking to lock in low rates for longer-term work. However, in the jack-up market we continue to see high utilization and strong fixtures particularly in South East Asia and
the Middle East. Astrong demand outlook for high specification jack-up assets may present the opportunity to add supply for which we are well positioned.”
February 27 2020
Hurricane CFO resigns
The chief financial officer and director of London-listed oil explorer Hurricane Energy has resigned via mutual agreement.
Hurricane said on February 27 that Alistair Stobie had resigned as CFO and director of the company by mutual agreement with the board.
The company added that, although not carrying out his day-to-day responsibilities after February 27, he would remain available to assist Hurricane with the transfer of his responsibilities.
Richard Chaffe has assumed the role of acting CFO at the request of the board. He joined the company in 2016 as the head of finance.
He was previously the finance director at EOG Resources in the UK and before that worked for Ernst & Young.
Steven McTiernan, chairman of Hurricane, said: “We thank Alistair Stobie for his contribution to Hurricane and are pleased that Richard Chaffe has agreed to assume the role of acting chief financial officer.
“He has considerable finance and audit experience both within Hurricane and the wider oil and gas sector.”
As for other recent company news, Hurricane was granted an extension for a UK license
which contains the Lancaster and Lincoln areas several months ago. The extension comes with a commitment to drill a well on each of the areas.
February 27 2020
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Week 08 27•February•2020