Belfast shipyard Harland & Wolff owes its parent company and bankers £45.5 million sterling (€73 million), according to latest results published by Fred Olsen Energy.
The shipyard is listed as Olsen Energy's engineering and fabrication division in the Norwegian group's first-quarter results, published yesterday. Olsen Energy reported a 7.1 per cent fall in revenues to 678 million Norwegian krones (€83.75 million) which equates to more than £51.8 million for the first quarter of this year.
The group attributed the fall in turnover to a combination of technical problems with a number of drill ships and decreases in both its offshore drilling and floating production divisions.
Olsen Energy said the negative results from other divisions had been offset by improved operating results from Harland. Although its Belfast operation reported operating losses of more than £1.7 million on a turnover in excess of £6.15 million the loss represented a significant £7.3 million improvement on the last quarter's losses.
The improvement on the losses is largely attributable to the transfer of ownership of the land bank on which Harland & Wolff is located to a new Fred Olsen subsidiary.
Olsen Energy said lack of orders at the Belfast division remained an issue during the last quarter but that the yard was working on expanding its order book and was involved in "several project opportunities".
"Under-utilisation of the workforce and under-recovery of overheads due to insufficient activity levels at the yard continued through the quarter, although to a lesser extent as new contracts were secured," it said. Management at Olsen Energy said the company also won steel work contracts to build a new bridge in Dublin and a ferry terminal in Liverpool.
Harland & Wolff's current order book includes an order from the British Ministry of Defence to supply two roll-on roll-off ferries, expected to be delivered in 2002 and 2003.
One of the problems still on the horizon for Harland & Wolff is its ongoing legal dispute with Global Marine, the US oil exploration company, regarding payment on a $300 million (€336 million) contract. The issue went to court and a decision is due shortly.
