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Petroleum Geo-Services ASA (OSL:PGS) October 6, 2008: Oslo, Norway, Petroleum Geo-Services ASA ('PGS' or the 'Company') announced today that its seismic 3D vessel fleet used approximately 81% of its total time to acquire marine contract and multi-client seismic in the third quarter of 2008. This compares to 84% in the second quarter of 2008 and 89% in the third quarter of 2007.
PGS routinely releases information about vessel utilization around the end of each quarter.
High steaming in the third quarter 2008 is caused by a lot of capacity moving out of the North Sea, as earlier communicated.
The vessel statistics for the third quarter 2008 includes Ramform Sovereign. The vessel is not included in the statistics for 2007.
The vessel statistics further excludes Ramform Victory from mid October 2007. Ramform Victory was delivered to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ("METI") January 31, 2008 and the revenues under the service agreement, which is reported as contract revenues, took full effect from the date of delivery.
Reference is made to earlier disclosures in PGS earnings releases relating to sensitivity to fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates. The US dollar (USD) has appreciated significantly towards the end of Q3 2008. A stronger USD generally favors the Company's operations since it incurs significant parts of its operating expenses in other currencies, but the effect on Q3 operating profit is limited. The Company holds foreign currency positions to balance its operational foreign currency exposure. As earlier disclosed some of these positions are not accounted for as hedges, but marked to market at each balance sheet date together with receivables and payables in non US currencies. During the first half of 2008 the USD depreciated from 5.41 against NOK at January 1, 2008 to 5.08 at June 30. In the same period PGS reported a gain in financial items of $15.8 million from revaluing foreign currency derivatives and other assets or liabilities. The appreciation of the USD against NOK in Q3 will more than reverse the foreign exchange gains recorded in first half of 2008 with a closing rate in Q3 of 5.77 against NOK. During Q3 PGS has generally reduced its foreign currency positions (hedging ratio) somewhat.
As previously announced PGS plans to release its 2008 third quarter financial results on Friday, October 24, 2008, at approximately 8:00 am Central European Time (CET).
**** Petroleum Geo-Services is a focused geophysical company providing a broad range of seismic and reservoir services, including acquisition, processing, interpretation, and field evaluation. The company also possesses the world's most extensive multi-client data library. PGS operates on a worldwide basis with headquarters at Lysaker, Norway. For more information on Petroleum Geo-Services visit www.pgs.com.
**** The information included herein contains certain forward-looking statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, projects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future. These statements are based on various assumptions made by the Company, which are beyond its control and are subject to certain additional risks and uncertainties. The Company is subject to a large number of risk factors including but not limited to the demand for seismic services, the demand for data from our multi-client data library, the attractiveness of our technology, unpredictable changes in governmental regulations affecting our markets and extreme weather conditions. For a further description of other relevant risk factors we refer to our Annual Report for 2007. As a result of these and other risk factors, actual events and our actual results may differ materially from those indicated in or implied by such forward-looking statements.
