The American drilling rig company Valaris, a rival to Noble, delivered better revenue and also outperformed operating profit guidance in the second quarter.

On the other hand, the company lost money on the bottom line, according to Valaris’ financial statements for the period.

Despite the loss, the drilling rig company’s CEO, Anton Dibowitz, remains positive about the future - both for the industry and for Valaris.

”Our outlook for the industry and our business remains very positive, with increasing demand and constrained supply tightening the market. We continue to see increases in contract duration, lead times and day rates, all of which point towards a strong and sustained upcycle,” he said in the statement.

”Our earnings and cash flow should grow meaningfully over the next few years as rigs roll from legacy day rate contracts to higher market rates and reactivated rigs return to work on attractive contracts,” he adds.

In the second quarter, Valaris reported revenue of USD 415.2m, while analysts polled by Bloomberg News had expected USD 406.1m.

The adjusted operating profit before depreciation and amortization, EBITDA, decreased 37% on a quarterly basis to USD 15.3m. This was more than three times higher than analysts’ expectations of USD 5.07m. The quarterly dip is due to high costs associated with the reactivation of rigs, Valaris writes in the report.

On the bottom line, Valaris lost USD 27m against a profit of USD 49m in the previous quarter. In the second quarter of 2022, the company earned USD 111.6m.

Noble, which merged with Maersk Drilling in October 2022, will publish its financial results on Wednesday after US closing time.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Simon Øst Vejbæk)