Floating production specialist Prosafe AS has posted a $1.4 million loss for the third quarter, down from a $15-million high a year ago on a ninefold hike in interest payments and higher taxes.

Prosafe stock fell 5.27 percent on the news.

Investors were cheered, however, by company operating profit, which was up almost $5 million to $21 million on the start of contract earnings for the floating production storage and offloading vessels the FPSO Umuroa and FPSO Polvo.

But three other FPSO tanker conversions have been delayed — FDPSO Azurite (Murphy, Congo), FPSO Cidade de Sao Mateus (Petrobras, Brazil) and FPSO Ningaloo Vision (Apache, Australia).

In a statement the company said it still intended to bid for a new project “at a satisfactory return in the shorter term”.

All three newbuilds will start earning on charter in first-quarter 2009, and the company said it would be enough, together with full bank support, to secure future cash flow.

Even the falling oil price, though it might slow the FPSO market, posed no threat.

“In the high-end market, where Prosafe Production is positioned, projects tend to be less marginal and operators more financially solid than in the low-end segment,” a statement from the Board said, adding that Prosafe was therefore “less-vulnerable to the current challenges in the world economy”.

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