Shearwater Geoservices AS (“Shearwater”) published its third quarter 2024 results.
Highlights Q3 2024:
High activity at the start of the quarter, followed by increased idle-time due to completion of several projects
Revenues of USD 178.7 million compared to USD 267.3 million in Q3 2023
EBITDA of USD 50.6 million compared to USD 86.0 million in Q3 2023
EBIT of USD 13.6 million compared to USD 52.7 million in Q3 2023
Vessel utilisation of 61% (11.1 active vessels), compared to 75% in Q2 2023 (13.6 active vessels)
Continued high tendering activity resulting in several awards in Q4 2024 and backlog currently at around USD 360 million
Irene Waage Basili, CEO of Shearwater, comments on the third quarter results:
“The marine seismic acquisition market has, as mentioned in the second quarter report, been slower-than-expected in 2024. We saw seasonal increase in demand over the North Sea summer albeit not as prolonged as we saw last year. This reflects the reduced EBITDA compared to the third quarter of 2023.
Although activity levels in the fourth quarter will be low, the project pipeline for the upcoming winter season and further into 2025 is encouraging, indicating increased demand in our core markets around the world. We have seen a recent increase in contract awards, but as expected, we also see projects move into 2025 that were previously assumed for fourth quarter execution.
Current tender processes makes it challenging to manage and optimise operations and financial performance. In this environment, it is important that the industry maintains rates that are sustainable and reflect the value creation enabled by state-of-the art technology and high-quality subsurface data.
One example of such value creation is Shearwater’s in-house developed OBN (ocean bottom node) acquisition platform, comprising the Pearl node and the purpose-built ROV vessel SW Tasman. This unique platform has completed its first large projects, creating significant value for our client in India and for us as a company. Several consecutive surveys are lined up with clients set to benefit from this industry-leading survey efficiency and data quality, supporting their field development activities.
Our commitment to advancing seismic technology and our role as industry consolidator over the cycle, position us to capitalise from increased demand. As the timing of that demand remains uncertain, Shearwater is currently evaluating the optimal size of the swing capacity, whilst maintaining focus on operating efficiency, fleet utilisation and delivering solid results.”
