Swiber Holdings reported a net loss of US$0.2 million for Q1 2016, in addition to a group revenue increase of $191.3 million due to South Asia projects.
The offshore engineering, procurement, installation and construction (EPIC) company's negative bottom line was due to higher income tax expense of $8.7 million.
Group revenue rose 16% compared to $164.9 million in Q1 2015 because of new contracts secured in the last 12 months.
In particular, revenue from ongoing projects in South Asia contributed 92.2% or $176.4 million, with the balance coming from Latin America. Gross profit margin improved 15.5%, thanks to stringent control on operating costs and lower procurement and subcontract costs.
Deputy group CEO Darren Yeo said the Q1 results reflected efforts in securing new contracts, especially in South Asia, despite difficult market conditions.
“We continued to focus on maximizing cost efficiencies amid the tough operating environment,” Yeo said. “While business sentiment in the oil and gas industry remains depressed, the group believes that the impact on shallow water field development and production activities, where Swiber is an established provider, will be lower.”
Yeo added that Swiber’s focus on field development rather than exploration stage of the production cycle in the oil and gas industry makes it less vulnerable to changes in oil prices and the industry’s expenditure cuts.
“We continue to make headway in our turnaround effort by improving our operational performance while maximizing cost efficiencies. This puts us in a better position to capitalize on future bidding opportunities,” he said.
Swiber’s order book now stands at $1.2 billion. The firm is working actively on new project tenders in its target markets in South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Africa and Latin America.
In February, Swiber won an EPIC contract worth about $100 million from a national oil company in South Asia. The project, which includes pipelines and subsea installation works, commenced immediately and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017.
Last year in December, Swiber with its joint venture partner Alam Maritim completed the offshore installation work for the NC3 field, which is part of the SK 316 gas development project off Sarawak, Malaysia.
The NC3 field development EPCIC project from PETRONAS was awarded to the Technip-MMHE joint venture (TMJV). TMJV subcontracted the offshore transportation and installation scope to Alam Swiber.
The scope of work was divided into two campaigns. The first campaign involved the transportation and installation of a wellhead platform jacket and topside (WHP), the launching and installation of a 9500mT central process platform (CPP) jacket, as well as the installation of a link bridge between the CPP and WHP platforms.
The second campaign involved the installation by floatover of the 13,000mT CPP topside on the previously installed jacket.
Image from Swiber
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