It posted a quarterly loss of $977m for the three months to December, compared to profit of $74m at the same stage of 2013.

Revenue for the fourth quarter fell to $1.395bn from $1.586bn due to lower activity in certain areas such as Africa and Canada.

Subsea 7 logged a loss of $381m for the twelve months of 2014, against $344m in profit the year before.

But