courtesy TTS Marine

Norway-based offshore equipment maker TTS Marine has posted a first-half net loss of 146.5 million kroner ($24.5 million), or down 300 percent after write-downs eroded what was slightly more business than in the first six months of 2008.

Shareholders seeing the loss learned, among other things, that two yard bankruptcies — one in Poland, the other in Germany — and the cost of developing high-tech drill kit were a 32-million-kroner blow to the bottom line.

“After a quiet first half of the year, we expect somewhat higher activities in the market in the second half,” management said. Group businesses include drill kit, land rigs, motion compensation for offshore well intervention and cranes.

The result included the first quarterly earnings surplus since third quarter 2008, although it meant eating into the companies’ backlog. Indeed, cancelled orders outweighed new orders in the second quarter, though there was less lost business in the final three months.

Potential clouds in 2009 arise from a decision to “counter-litigate” against the businesses of bankrupt land-rig company Ability Drilling for what TTS people call a failed land rig delivery that wasn’t, or “unfounded claim”.

The estate of bankrupt Ability Drilling had alleged failed rig-kit orders from TTS business TTS Sense and had sought hundreds of millions of kroner in damages as late as the end of May 2009, although little has been heard since.

Though more reporting on the case seems certain, a Scandoil.com attempt to reach Ability via Web contact details failed.

Tags: Ability Drilling, TTS Marine