Vantage Drilling posts loss as low rig utilization bites

After emerging from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February, Vantage Drilling, a drilling contractor with a fleet of three drillships and four jack-up rigs, reported a loss for the third quarter of 2016 and a sharp drop in revenues amid a significant decline in both jack-up and deepwater rig utilization. 

Upon emergence from the company’s Chapter 11 restructuring on February 10, 2016, Vantage adopted fresh-start accounting, which resulted in the company becoming a new entity for financial reporting purposes. Therefore, the company’s financial position and results of operations for the period before February 10, 2016, are attributed to “Predecessor” while the position and operations after February 10 are attributed to the reorganized “Successor”.

The offshore driller on Thursday reported a net loss of approximately $41.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016, as compared to the Predecessor reporting net income of approximately $5.2 million for the corresponding period last year.

Further, Vantage’s revenues for the third quarter of 2016 dropped to $39.9 million, compared to $210.09 million revenues made by Predecessor in the same period last year.

When its comes to the company’s fleet performance, the Successor’s jack-up rig utilization for this year’s quarter dropped to 25.6 pct from 72 pct in the third quarter 2015. The utilization for the deepwater rigs in the third quarter 2016 also decreased totaling 33.1 pct compared with 87.1 pct in the same period last year.

In its 3Q report, Vantage said that it won a new contract for the jack-up rig Emerald Driller in Qatar.

Offshore Energy Today Staff