Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this Second Quarter Presentation of Solstad Offshore ASA. This presentation will be held by myself, Lars Peder Solstad, who is the CEO of the company, and Kjetil Ramstad, our CFO. Our main message in today's presentation is that we are now starting to see a positive development in our markets. We see it in oil and gas, we see it in wind, and we see it across our main geographical markets. We will come back to that in more detail in a minute. If you have any questions, feel free to type them in as described, and we will answer in the Q&A session after the presentation. After a quick look at the disclaimer on page two, we then move on to page three, where we will have a look at some of the key numbers and the financial highlights for the quarter.
When comparing quarters, either we do second quarter with first quarter or second quarter this year with second quarter last year, we have to keep in mind that last year was prior to the restructuring, but it included the Normand Maximus on charter to Saipem. While in first quarter this year, the numbers include the Normand Maximus termination fee, while in the second quarter this year, it is without the significant earnings from the Saipem charter party, but with a revenue from a different contract on a different rate level. With that in mind and looking at the various key numbers, we see that on the revenue and on the EBITDA, we are slightly down compared to last year and also on the margin.
While on the EBIT, we came in significantly better, and the main difference there is linked to a huge impairment that we took last year that we have not done this year, and Kjetil will come back to that in a minute. We also see that our debt level is reduced. We see that our cash position is improved, and we are now also onto the positive side on the equity. We will come back to more details on the numbers when Kjetil will go through them later in the presentation. Moving to an update to the business on page four, we now continue to see that we continue to keep our cost level at competitive levels.
We see that we have had in the quarter, we have had operationally, we have worked to our client's satisfaction, and we have slowly started to build backlog as we see that the rates have started to improve. We own one of the largest high-end offshore fleets in the world, and in the quarter, we had an average of 80 vessels working, and they achieved a utilization in average of 88%, which is quite significantly higher than last year. We started the year with 72 vessels in operation, so we have activated eight vessels the first six months. As I said, the overall utilization was significantly better than last year, however, the rate level in average were a bit lower. What we expect is that, and what normally happens, is that when we see utilization rates of close to 90%, normally then rate level will follow thereafter.
In the quarter, we have activated five vessels from layup, and all of those had very limited reactivation cost, and they were all activated towards new contracts in Japan, in Russia, and in the UK. We will continue to have a disciplined approach and only activate vessels when we have a contract in hand and when it can be economically justified. The COVID-19 pandemic is still a major operational issue, and it particularly goes for crew changes and quarantine regulations and logistics. It also comes with a cost, and we have booked NOK 30 million in the quarter, and that is on the same level as the previous quarter. Moving on to the next slide, we will discuss a bit the Normand Maximus as we have done before as well. As many of you will remember, we solved the dispute we had with Saipem.
During or in early this quarter, we booked the termination fee from Saipem in the first quarter, and that dispute is now finally solved or resolved. We are having a discussion with the Normand Maximus lenders of a long-term financial solution for the vessel, so that is ongoing. On 3rd March this year, we informed that legal proceedings have been initiated related to the financing of the owner of Normand Maximus. In this quarter, the company has received summons from MYF Maximus Limited as one of the claimants in these proceedings. The company anticipates the claim to be dismissed. On the chartering status, the vessel is currently working in Gulf of Mexico on the Mexican side. We have a firm period to the middle of September with various options thereafter, and we expect that the vessel will continue to operate well into October.
Thereafter, the vessel is due for five-year classing during the quarter, so that will take place by the end of the year. We are now bidding actively for new employment after we have completed the five-year classing. That includes opportunities in Africa, the Gulf of Mexico, South America, and the North Sea. Looking at the remainder of the fleet in general, we have communicated earlier that we are targeting a core fleet of 90 vessels operating to serve our clients within oil and gas and within offshore wind globally. The number of active vessels at the end of the quarter was 80, and the number of vessels still in layup and defined as core vessels for the company is 13. As I already mentioned, five vessels have been activated from layup during the quarter due to awarded contracts.
As of today, we have sold 12 vessels this year, and four of those were sold during the second quarter, while we have also sold two more vessels after the quarter end. The 27 vessels held for sale are now down to 25. We expect that a significant part of those 25 will be sold in the third and fourth quarter this year. We also continue to upgrade our core fleet, and that is some of the efforts we are doing to bring down the emissions from our fleet. We took a decision on Normand Ocean, which is the first subsea vessel in the fleet that will get the battery hybrid system during the quarter, but it will be the ninth vessel in total in the fleet installing such a system.
We are working with several more initiatives to bring down emissions further in our fleet, and that is battery hybrid systems and other initiatives. If we look at the market and how that develops, we have signed and been awarded several new contracts during the quarter, but also after the quarter end. All new contracts that we have done are at better terms than the previous contracts. It does not mean that the margins are great, but it means that they are better than the previous ones, and it is moving in the right direction. Those contracts have been done in oil and gas, in offshore wind, within all vessel segments we operate, and within all the main geographical areas where we operate.
It is also positive to see that there seems to be more activity also in other geographical areas, for example, in a very important region as West Africa, where we see that there might be opportunities also for us going forward. The CSV segment is definitely the segment that is sort of closest to a supply-demand balance. We even see that in part of the CSV segment, for example, the 250-ton crane vessel size, there are already a shortage, so it's quite tight on that vessel type. Of course, that is because that segment benefits from being in demand both from oil and gas and from offshore wind. Within anchor handlers and PSV, there are also increased demands. However, there is still pressure on the day rates, and that is still the same story. It's too many bidders and too many available vessels.
Having said that, as I mentioned earlier on, the improved utilization up to close to 90% in our case will normally be followed by higher rate levels eventually. Our backlog is at NOK 4.5 billion, and as we are moving into improved market conditions, we are comfortable with the backlog level we have today. It gives us a lot of opportunities to build new backlog on improved terms. It's also comfortable to see that most of the present backlog is for this year and for next year. As we are moving into better market conditions, we will start to build onto that backlog. As I said, we are comfortable with the level or the backlog level that we now have, taking the market into consideration. Kjetil, I will now hand the microphone over to you for taking us through the number on page nine and onwards.
Thank you, Lars Peder, and good morning to everyone. If we then go to the income statement on page nine for the consolidated group, we see that, as Lars also mentioned, the second quarter of this year is on the top line on the operating income, is slightly behind last year. The main driver for this is caused by Normand Maximus that was on a profitable contract with Saipem in last year that we know was terminated. This year, it's on a contract that is not so profitable. If you also look at the first half year of 2021, there you also see the effect of the termination fee that was booked in the first quarter of this year. It's good to see that vessel operating expenses are on a stable level, also for the quarter and the first half year.
When it comes to the administrative expenses, they are still influenced by some part of restructuring elements in those numbers, both on the second quarter and on the half year. That is expected to gradually disappear when we get later out in the year. On the operating results before depreciation, that is, as I said, very much influenced by Normand Maximus. Last year, we had an impairment in the second quarter of almost NOK 1 billion. In this year, that is not the case. We have sold some vessels that have had an immaterial accounting effect in the quarter. We have a financing cost of approximately net NOK 200 million, which of that is NOK 250 million approximately related to interest expense in the quarter. As you can see, also as a part of finalizing the restructuring, the finance cost has been reduced significantly.
That gives an adjusted EBITDA result of NOK 309 million, which is again explained by the Saipem contract that was terminated in 2020. When we get to the balance sheet on page 10, you see that also we have, if I go through them, the larger variances against last year. Of course, we have ordinary depreciation compared to last year, so the fixed asset has been reduced. We have the right-of-use asset, which is related to impairment of Normand Maximus. We released some leases as a part of the restructuring. You see also that the cash and total current asset has been improved quite significantly with almost NOK 1 billion. That is also a result of the restructuring. Again, the equity has been strengthened to a level that has been improved a lot.
The long-term debt is, of course, increased because that has moved from current to long-term with NOK 7 billion. Of course, we also have some current debt remaining, which is related to mainly Normand Maximus. That is something that we, as Lars Peder mentioned, still are working on a refinancing solution on this. If we then go to the next page on the cash flow, we see that we started the year with a cash balance of NOK 2.4 billion. We have had some EBITDA of NOK 685 million so far this year. You can see that what we have paid in finance, leases, and interests and repayment of borrowings is approximately NOK 570 million so far this year, so quite significant.
We also have a large fleet of vessels that need to be maintained, so regulatory dockings and also, as Lars mentioned, investment in battery hybrid systems in the quarter or in the first half year of NOK 140 million. We have some changes in the working capital. As you can see, the revenues have increased, so we have an increase there of net NOK 200 million. That gives us an ending cash balance of NOK 2.2 billion, which is on a sustainable level for the company. With that, I will hand the word back to Lars.
Thanks, Kjetil. I will go directly to the summary slide on page 12 and try to have some concluding remarks before we move to the questions. It's a very positive sign, I would say, to see that we have experienced a very high bidding activity in our main markets and also that we have concluded several new deals at improved terms, especially after the quarter end. As I mentioned, the utilization rate up to close to 90% is historically quite good. Normally, that will be followed by higher rates. We, as a company, will continue to adjust our fleet by selling off the non-strategic and also to activate the core vessels when that can be justified. At the point, we will have around 90 operational vessels. We expect that a lot more of the vessels held for sale will be sold during the second half of this year.
We also continue to experience that being a true global operator is a huge benefit for us as a company. We are bidding vessels to local content markets in places like Brazil and Australia based on vessels that are operating elsewhere. That means that we have access to those markets and we can deliver. We have in-house deliveries of all what is required of local content. That is a huge benefit that we will build onto also going forward. We also see that having exposure to both oil and gas and to offshore wind with many times the same type of vessels or the same vessels is also a benefit. It will continue to strengthen that combination, which will be very positive for the demand going forward and particularly for the CSVs. This ends our presentation and we move on to the questions. We have got a few.
I will start with some questions from Idha Valeur from ShippingWatch. The first one is, when do you estimate that you will have sold the remaining 25 of the 37 vessels? I have probably already answered that, but the majority during the next six months and the remainder not long thereafter is the target. The second question was, how are the outlook for ending a quarter with black numbers? As we said, there are positive market developments. That gives us hope. We see that the optimism is increasing and that we expect to have better numbers going forward than previous and at the point that will also give the positive bottom line. You refer to the second quarter report about consolidation in the market and if we have any companies in mind and how much consolidation is necessary. We don't have any firm discussions with anyone. We don't have that.
We have always, especially during the last five years, said that we think that it's necessary for us as an industry to consolidate, to have fewer owners and fewer vessels competing for each potential job. That is a way of getting the rates back to sustainable levels. We don't have any firm discussions going on. The last from Ida is related to scrapping. She's referring to analysts saying that several hundred OSVs need to be scrapped for the OSV sector to experience an upturn, and what our thoughts are about that. It depends very much on which segment we're talking about. If you look at the layup fleet around the world, the majority of those vessels will never return to the market anyway. It's good to get them permanently out of the market. That will be a benefit. To put a number on it is difficult to say.
We will scrap vessels, and we hope others will do as well. The next question is about any thoughts about consolidation. I think I've already answered that. There's a question from Jostin Bjornsson from SR Bank. Do you have a clear perception of competitor behavior in terms of rate levels in tenders and scrapping? I think we'll concentrate on ourselves. We think we have to use all opportunities we have to improve the commercial terms. If there are three vessels in the market and one job, we experience from time to time that the market has dropped unnecessarily low. I don't think that should be, but we shouldn't do that. We need to take a common responsibility to bring the rates back to sustainable levels. We're definitely going to do our part of that job. There was another one from Rui Conduto.
That's also about selling the vessels by the end of the year and something about the sales value. Mainly, I think I already commented on the timing, but on the sales value, the vessels that have been in layup for a long time, the values are very low. I think that's a comment that is sufficient. There's another one from Askia Faster regarding are the sold vessels ending up as competitors for the future. No. The vessels are either sold to geographical areas where we have limited access or to other types of services. We don't expect to meet these vessels in competition. There's another one from Roger Stene. It's now six months since the bank seized the shares related to Maximus. Are you still positive that you will achieve or reach an agreement with the lenders?
It's not the right of me to comment more on the Normand Maximus other than the owner situation and the finance situation other than what we have already said in the presentation and in the quarterly report. Here's another one from Swain Rouar. Are there any plans or needs? Is there any plans from the company to come to the market for an IPO to be able to do investments, for example, in offshore wind? The answer on that is that no, there are no plans of increasing the share capital. That was the last question. By that, thanks for everyone who listens in, and see you in the next quarter.