Subsea 7 recorded a net operating loss of $26m in its renewables business in the second quarter of the year, spilling more red ink from the $10m deficit in the same period in 2019.
The marine contractor said the result for Seaway 7 for the last three months was primarily due to vessel downtime and “increased costs on the Triton Knoll project in the UK following an incident onboard Seaway Strashnov”.
Five people on board the ship were injured on 8 May after an accident at the 860MW project off Lincolnshire. “The vessel returned to the field in June and, along with a third party vessel, is now making good progress towards meeting the original schedule,” said Subsea 7 in results today.
The loss came despite revenue in the renewables unit hitting $66m, an increase of $17m compared to Q2 2019. This was driven by higher activity levels in Taiwan and the North Sea, the company said.
Subsea 7 ended the second quarter with a backlog of $7bn, including a record $2.2bn in renewables. New orders recorded in backlog during the quarter included Seagreen, an integrated EPCI project offshore Scotland, Kaskasi, an integrated contract offshore Germany, and Hollandse Kust Zuid, an integrated contract for the first planned subsidy free wind farm project offshore the Netherlands.
In total, Subsea 7 is currently executing contracts for projects representing 4.8GW of offshore wind power, enough to power approximately 5.3 million homes.
Meanwhile, the company said existing offshore wind projects have been largely unaffected by the challenging Covid-19 environment and tendering activity remains “robust”.
The Subsea 7 group meanwhile recorded a net loss of $922m for the quarter, turning around the $24m profit in the same period in 2019.
Chief executive John Evans said the result was down to reduced activity, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recognition of $104m of restructuring costs related to the group’s resizing programme.