SeaBird cuts losses in fourth quarter 2018

Seismic company SeaBird Exploration increased its revenues during the last quarter of 2018 and managed to cut its losses compared to the prior-year period.

In its financial report released on Tuesday SeaBird said it had recorded revenues of $6.8 million in 4Q 2018 compared to $5.4 million in 3Q 2018 and $5.5 million in 4Q 2017.

The company reported a net loss of $3.7 million for 4Q 2018 compared to the net loss of $4.9 million in the same period in 2017.

The company had a vessel utilization of 58% in 4Q 2018, compared to 55% in 3Q 2018 and 42% in 4Q 2017.

The company had three active vessels during the quarter, one vessel starting operations late in 4Q after docking, and one vessel warm stacked. SeaBird said it expects to maintain four vessels in operation for the first quarter of 2019 and expects utilization for 1Q 2019 to be higher than 4Q 2018.

Tendering activity healthy

SeaBird said that the improved oil & gas sentiment seen earlier in the year continued in quarter four, although the reduction in the oil price created some near-term uncertainty in the financial markets. Tendering activity continued at a healthy level.

According to the company, most contracts year to date have been related to ocean bottom seismic surveys (OBN) largely driven by the oil & gas companies’ focus on increased oil recovery on producing fields, as well as near-field exploration. The OBN market is thus experiencing strong growth with tenders coming from all geographic regions. OBN-related source vessel tenders have a high conversion rate.

“We continue to see a healthy number of exploration-related 2D and 3D streamer survey tenders, and we were recently awarded two 2D contract surveys in South America.

“Multi-client streamer activity is still lagging given limited prefunding. We would expect this market segment to improve as exploration spending by the oil companies increases,” SeaBird said.

“With many oil companies now indicating increased exploration activity and spending in 2019, we expect tender activity to recover and continue at a solid rate going forward. Moreover, we believe the ongoing consolidation of the seismic fleet and the reduction in seismic streamer operators have improved the company’s position in its core markets,” SeaBird stated.

Seismic spending in 2018 has largely been targeting increased oil recovery (IOR) from producing fields and near-field exploration, and this has resulted in a commensurate increase in source vessel demand related to ocean bottom seismic surveys. SeaBird stated it expects the growing volume of ocean bottom seismic activity to continue in 2019.