Norway-based survey outfit EMGS has posted a net loss for the fourth quarter of 2008 of $23 million, a widening of 30 percent as the company was compelled to shrink its active fleet to three vessels with a new-build awaiting delivery.

Company shares sank 14.9 percent on the news.

The result came on quarterly revenues of $15.6 million, or just less than half the business reported a year ago.

The company said it was "carefully optimistic" about the future in light of equally careful oil company spending. Company leaders have long admitted the difficulty of gaining acceptance for its high-tech hydrocarbon-finding kit.

The 50 percent strength of its contracted fleet in the fourth quarter was about the same as in the same span in 2007, and the apparenet lack of headway is forcing a review of other uses for the company's electro magnetic detection software.

The technology itself was under attack in a London courtroom, and Schlumberger won a court ruling banning the use of three patents in U.K. waters. EMGS patents appear safe elsewhere, however, and the company has been able to cut investments by half to $24 million in-line with cost-cutting well underway.

Adding injury, the company has also announced that its chief executive Terje Eidesmo was undergoing a full hip replacement and would be out of action for three months. The chief operating officer will takeover in the interim.

Tags: EMGS