PETALING JAYA: Perdana Petroleum Bhd
remains cautiously optimistic about prospects for the offshore support vessel (OSV) market despite the uncertain outlook for the energy market.
It said even though there was a clear momentum in the recovery of the OSV market, which gave rise to higher utilisation and charter rates for the offshore chartering segment in 2022, current geopolitical dynamics as well as rising inflation and interest rates remain a concern.
“Moving forward, we will leverage our strengths and improved efficiency to remain sustainable and relevant in the long term,” the company said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.
It added the “Petronas Activity Outlook 2023-2025” report projects a steady outlook for Malaysian offshore activities, which will likely see an increase in drilling and development project activities, thus auguring well for the OSV market.
Perdana posted a 3% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in revenue to RM29.6mil for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1Q23), on better daily charter rates following an upsurge in demand for OSVs arising from an increase in offshore upstream activities despite lower vessel utilisation at 31% as compared to 33% in 1Q22.
The company posted a net loss of RM8.26mil or loss per share of 0.37 sen for the period as compared to a net loss of RM14mil or loss per share of 0.63 sen in 1Q22.
Perdana’s lower loss for the quarter was due to lower operating costs coupled with lower depreciation charges (RM12.8mil in 1Q23 versus RM14.7mil in 1Q22).
In addition, lower finance costs also contributed to the lower loss for the quarter.
The monsoon season during 1Q23 led to a much lower vessel utilisation rate of 31% in 1Q23 compared to the 60% utilisation rate in 4Q22.
This led to a 46% lower revenue for 1Q23 versus 4Q22, although better charter rates due to an upsurge in demand for OSV helped to reduce the negative impact of the lower utilisation rate to some extent.
