The New York-listed drilling contractor
reported net income of $50m, versus a loss of $106m in the same period a year
prior.
Excluding a $221m impairment tied to the
company’s recent investment in Archer and losses on derivatives, earnings from
continuous operations amounted to $0.55 per share, which was three cents lower
than analysts’ consensus estimate.
Seadrill said operating revenues rose to
$1.26bn from $1.04bn in the three months to 31 December 2012 and noted
its fleet of floating rigs and jack-ups achieved utilisation levels of around 86%
and 94%, respectively.
Management said they weren’t satisfied
with the operational performance of the deepwater fleet in the fourth but
continue to be optimistic on the long-term outlook in both the ultra-deepwater
and jack-up markets going forward.
Seadrill, which is backed by Norwegian
shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, pointed out that ten rigs are due for delivery
this year alone and also used Thursday’s earnings release to shed light on a
series of contract extensions.
You can read the earnings report in full
by clicking on the link located under the Related Media section to the right of
this article
