Welcome to the review and presentation of our results for the fourth quarter. My name is Bernt Omdal, and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of the company. Together with me, I have our CFO, Vidar Jerstad, and we will take you through this presentation. Sea1 Offshore's report for the fourth quarter 2024 was released prior to the market opening today. In this presentation, we will cover the main highlights of the report, and we will refer to the presentation issued together with the financial report. At the end of the presentation, we will open up for questions. Looking at the highlights for the quarter, we operated 17 fully owned vessels. All of our vessels delivered a positive EBITDA margin. We had close to $70 million in revenue, and we delivered $35 million in EBITDA, which is equal to an EBITDA margin of 52%.
The numbers are delivered with less vessels than the same quarter in 2023. Some operational highlights: we continued to deliver safe and efficient operation in all regions. This is a result of high focus on safety at all levels in the company. The fleet utilization in the fourth quarter was 92%, that is excluding one vessel that was in lay-up. In the quarter, we managed to extend the contract for Sea1 Spearfish with another year. We also signed a multi-well contract with a rig consortium in Australia. The contract is secured together with Viking Supply Ships. And the duration for this contract is a minimum of 16 wells, and the duration for Sea1 tonnage is estimated to be between 570 days and up to 1,000 days firm. And there are options attached to this contract. The exact number of days depends on time spent on each well.
Some other highlights worth mentioning: the EBITDA for the current fleet increased to $35.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, which is up from $26.2 million in the same quarter in 2023. These numbers are then adjusted for the nine vessels sold in July 2024. We signed a contract with COSCO for building two offshore energy support vessels. The vessels are of ST-245 design. That is a construction vessel with a 250-ton crane. Moving on to subsequent events. On the back of solid results, a strong balance sheet, and a significant backlog, a dividend payment of NOK 7 per share was made to shareholders in January 2025. We have a refinanced debt related to our two well intervention vessels. A new credit facility in a total of $250 million is in place. That is including a term loan and a revolver credit facility.
Existing debt in a total of $102 million was repaid. So then I hand over to my colleague Vidar Jerstad. He will give you some more details regarding the results for the fourth quarter 2024.
Thank you, Bernt. Let's take a look at the income statement, which confirms a continuation of the positive market trend. However, when comparing 2024 figures to 2023 figures, please remember that the number of vessels owned by Sea1 has decreased by nine vessels. The company had $68.4 million in revenue in the quarter. Operating expenses were $26.6 million. Administrative expenses were $6.4 million. EBITDA for the quarter ended at $35.4 million. Note that when we eliminate the nine vessels sold earlier this year from last year's EBITDA, we can recognize an increase in EBITDA by $9.2 million, or 35%. Depreciation of vessels was $13.3 million. Net financial items ended negative by $13.7 million and were affected by currency losses. $8.3 million in currency loss affecting the book equity is due to assets denominated in local non-dollar currencies that all depreciated against the dollar in the fourth quarter.
However, note that in real terms, dollar valuation for global mobile vessels is most likely not affected by fluctuation in local currencies. Profit before taxes ended at $3.6 million. Net profit after taxes ended at $3.5 million. After adjusting for minority shareholder in our anchor handling subsidiary, we end up at $3.2 million. Note that Sea1 in December bought all shares owned by the minority shareholder in our anchor handling subsidiary. Therefore, there will be no adjustment for minority shareholders going forward. This slide shows operating margin distributed on our three main segments. The figures are before G&A expenses and include only vessels owned by Sea1 today. On the left-hand side, we see operating margin in the fourth quarter this year compared to the same quarter last year. On the right-hand side, we see full 2024 figures compared to full year last year.
If we had adjusted the subsea segment for the one scientific core drilling vessel in lay-up, we see increased operating margin in all segments for both time periods. Both charts confirm that markets are still improving. On this slide, we see the financial position of Sea1 Offshore at the end of 2024. The company had a very solid financial position with book equity of 50%. Net interest-bearing debt was $271 million. Following the company's continued efforts to optimize the company's capital structure, the company now in January this year refinanced debt related to its two well intervention vessels and paid dividend to share owners. If adjusted for these subsequent events just mentioned, the equity ratio would have been 38%. Future capital allocation and dividends will be aligned with the number of newbuilds and an assessment of the company's financial outlook and market conditions.
Recent past shows that shareholders have been benefited with dividends when conditions have allowed this. Back to you, Bernt.
Moving on to our contract backlog, Sea1 Offshore has a firm contract backlog of $840 million. In addition, there is $626 million of option, and the largest part of our backlog is related to the subsea fleet, and for 2025, we have a firm backlog of about $230 million. We have a good coverage for our fleet for the remaining of this year. For 2025 and 2026, we have 100% coverage for the PSV fleet, and for the subsea fleet, we have a good coverage as well. For the anchor handler segment, we believe we will see more term opportunities in the near future, and hopefully, we will be in a position to conclude even more firm contracts for that type of vessels as well. Moving on to the fleet, our fleet consists of 17 owned vessels as listed on this slide.
In addition, we have two vessels under construction and six vessels under our management. Sea1 Offshore has now two well intervention vessels, two offshore construction vessels, six anchor handlers, two PSVs, a scientific core drilling vessel, and some smaller vessels operating in Brazil, two fast crew vessels, and two oil spill recovery vessels. And as mentioned, we have two new buildings under construction at COSCO Shipyard. And we also operate six vessels on behalf of Viking Supply Ships. So let us look at our area of operations per today. On this slide, we have listed all vessels operated by us. The company has a really good global footprint, which is important for the utilization of our fleet. Our main office is still here in Kristiansand in Norway. We have offices in Canada, in the United States, in Brazil, in Ghana, and also in Australia.
We will continue to move our vessels around the world where we can perform safe operation based on sustainable conditions. And for the anchor handlers segments, there are mainly shorter contracts and campaigns. In Australia and Asia, we currently have the anchor handlers Sea1 Sapphire, Sea1 Aquamarine, and Sea1 Amethyst. And we also have the Sea1 Emerald on our way to the same region. The smaller anchor handler, Avalon Sea, is still in Canada. And Sea1 Ruby are on a term contract in Argentina as we speak. Look at the construction vessels. We have the Sea1 Spearfish on a firm contract until February next year. She is currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico. And we have Sea1 Dorado on a firm contract, and she is currently operating in Brazil.
In Brazil, we also have the two well intervention vessels, Siem Helix 1 and Siem Helix 2, and they are both on long-term contracts. We have two PSVs in our fleet. That is the Siem Atlas and Siem Giant. They are on term contracts in Brazil as well. And for our smaller Brazilian fleet, we have the oil spill recovery vessel, Siem Maragogi and Siem Marataizes. They are both on term contracts with Petrobras. And then there are two fast crew vessels that are on long-term bareboat agreements. Our core drilling vessel, the JOIDES Resolution, is now in lay-up in Norway. And as shown on previous slides, we have a good contract coverage for this year. At the same time, it's important to have vessels available in an improving market. This is to increase the potential of earnings. A few comments to the market.
The construction support vessel market is almost sold out, giving record rates for owners with available vessels. The North Sea anchor handler spot market softened a bit in the fourth quarter. That is following project seasons with vessels arriving back from both Africa and Canada, and this increasing availability is then putting some pressure on the day rates. The same rig activity in Australia will see a temporary decrease in 2025, we believe. This might result in more available vessels in the region, and this could, in the short term, lead to regional pressure on rates and utilization. The same rig count on the Norwegian side is expected to increase in 2025. This is, of course, positive and might result in rate and utilization increasing for the larger anchor handlers.
The anchor handler project outlook for the North Sea, West Africa, Canada, and Australia is promising, especially for the larger anchor handler with good capacity for FPSO mooring work. This will probably extract vessels out of the North Sea spot market and limit the supply side here locally. In Brazil, Petrobras has increased their E&P budgets, which leads to an increasing number of deep-water FPSO developments, and lately, Petrobras has been issuing tenders in most categories, which is presently pulling vessels out of the North Sea and also other regions, so then, to summarize, we saw a strong quarter with high activity. We delivered first-class operations with excellent HSEQ performance. We have a solid financial position. We have a strong backlog with quality clients, and there is a positive long-term market outlook in all segments. That was the end of the presentation, and we will now open up for questions.
Is there any questions, please? You can type your questions in the chat function. We have not received any questions so far. Please feel free to ask questions. Okay, we have received a couple of questions. One is regarding our dividend policy. Maybe you could comment on that, Vidar?
Deciding on the dividend, that is up to the board of directors to decide. We have no official policy with regards to dividend. In the recent past, we can see that when the situation allows it, shareholders will benefit from dividends.
Okay, then there is another question regarding the scientific core drilling vessel, JOIDES Resolution, if there are any thoughts about her. We are working on finding employment for her. In the meantime, she's going to stay here in lay-up in Kristiansand. Then there is a question about how we should think about further consolidation of the anchor handler market in the North Sea. Let's hope for more consolidation. I mean, the spot market in the North Sea is still challenging. We see high day rates, but the utilization is not at a level that is sustainable. We are open for consolidation in the markets. That's what we can comment on. How do you see a peace deal in Ukraine and Russia affect your business?
If the drilling campaigns that were performed before the war in Russia are back on track, like in Sakhalin and the Kara Sea, that is normally taking a lot of vessels out of the spot markets. That would be positive. I believe that will be years ahead before such campaigns can be back on track.
There is a question regarding buybacks. I believe it's buybacks of shares. Well, buybacks of shares, that's an option. We have not discussed it, but that is also dependent on some liquidity in the shares. Not discussed yet, but it is an option. It also depended on the liquidity of the shares.
Then there is another question regarding the JOIDES Resolution, cold versus warm storage. The vessel is in cold storage at the moment. And that is some $2,000 a day for storing the vessel.
There is a question here. How does the firm think about targeted debt level? We have optimized the capital structure pretty well now the last eight months. We have in total refinanced bank debt for about $400 million. And we have seen interest from existing banks. And we have seen interest from new banks. But optimizing the capital structure is not about having the maximum of leverage. What we see now is that we have a lot of options in maneuvering going forward, depending on all kinds of different scenarios. We will not give away some optionality in that.
Then there are other questions about how will the new vessels be financed. That is not yet concluded. That is work in progress. So we will revert on that later on. Then there are no more questions. If there are any other questions, please type your questions in the chat function. There is one more question here now.
There is a question now with regard to the bond. We have a very strong financial position and ample liquidity. The company has access to multiple sources of financing and is in no hurry to raise any financing. Our decision to explore the bond market was opportunistic. We decided not to pursue a bond market issue at this time.
All right. So if there are no further questions, we will end this session. We thank you all for attending. Thank you.