Topaz Energy and Marine, a leading offshore support vessel company, has posted revenues of $404.6 million during 2014, marking a 7 per cent increase over $376.4 million registered in the previous year.

The period has seen continued growth across the group EBITDA up by 25 per cent over 2013, a company statement said.
    
The revenue increase primarily due to the addition of seven new vessels including the annualized contribution of one vessel resulting in an increase of $47.8 million, the statement added.

Other factors that contributed to the revenue included better utilization and increase in vessel day rates resulting in an increase of $7.6 million, $16.7 million from the sale of two vessels in 2014 against $7.2 million realized from vessel sales in the same period last year and increase in mobilization revenue of $2.1 million on new vessels deployed in the Global region, the statement said.

The increase in revenue was partially offset by a $6.4 million loss of revenue due to a delay in the start of Project Shah Deniz-2 in Azerbaijan, a revenue loss of $7.9 million due to EBOLA outbreak related challenges in West Africa resulting in lower utilization of spot vessels, loss of revenue due to vessels in dry-docks or off-hire of $15.8 million and $8.7 million loss of charter revenue due to vessels sold during the period, according to the statement.

During the period, revenue in the Mena increased by $7.2 million, or 7.7 per cent, to $100.9 million compared to $93.7 million for the same period last year. This increase is primarily due to the sale of one vessel for $16.3 million against $0.9 million for the same period last year and the better utilization of two vessels contributed $1.1 million.

Revenue decreased by $2.3 million  due to the lower utilization of four vessels, five vessels being in dry-dock impacted revenue by $4.6 million and the loss of charter revenue on a vessel sold reduced revenue by a further $ 2.4 million.

Administrative expenses increased by $5.5 million, or 14.1 per cent, to $44.7 million during the period as compared to $39.2 million during the same period last year. The increases are on account of the investment Topaz made during the period in refining its growth strategy and hiring global talent.

Operational review

The year 2014 has seen continued strong growth across the Group's activities with consistently high fleet utilization in our key markets of the Caspian and Mena.

In the Caspian, after encountering some initial delays during 2014, two vessels have begun transitioning to the Shah Deniz-2 Project in Azerbaijan. Turkmenistan is delivering solid results with good growth prospects for 2015. Results from Kazakhstan and Russia showed higher utilization during the period and the high utilization is projected to continue in 2015 as demand is strong, driven by work to repair the Kashagan pipeline in Kazakhstan.

Results in the Mena region exceeded last year’s performance due to robust operational delivery boosted by the profit generated on the sale of the vessel Muscat. The vessel sold was an ageing asset that did not have a natural home in the Topaz fleet going forward and as such was identified as a divestment candidate.

The global region delivered strong growth during the year as five new vessels entered the market with an additional vessel to enter service in Q1 2015. New partnerships have been progressed in Angola and Nigeria which will position Topaz to secure new medium and long-term contracts, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service