Valaris Limited has reported an operating loss of $24.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The Bermudian-based offshore drilling company said the results compared with operating income of $3.1 million in the third quarter of the year.

Valaris said revenues decreased to $306 million in the fourth quarter from $327 million in the third quarter.

Excluding reimbursable items, revenues decreased to $269 million in the fourth quarter from $293 million in the third quarter, primarily due to fewer operating days and lower average day rates for the company’s jack-up fleet.

President and chief executive officer Anton Dibowitz said: “We focus every day on delivering safe, reliable and efficient operations to our customers. I would like to thank the Valaris team for continuing to deliver the strong performance that our customers have come to expect from us, achieving revenue efficiency of 97 per cent during the fourth quarter and more than 98 per cent over the course of 2021.

“We also improved our personal safety performance by 25 per cent as compared to 2020. These accomplishments are particularly impressive considering the challenging working conditions faced by our offshore crews and support teams during the ongoing pandemic.”

Mr Dibowitz added: “This strong operational performance has translated into contracting success, increasing our contract backlog to $2.4 billion from $1 billion at the beginning of 2021.

“Since our last quarterly report, we have added approximately $330 million of new backlog, including three-year contract extensions for four of our jack-up rigs leased to ARO Drilling as well as floater contracts in the US Gulf of Mexico and offshore Australia.

“We are in the midst of a transitional period that will extend into the second quarter of this year as we incur reactivation costs to ready three drillships and one semi-submersible for contracts that are expected to commence before the end of the second quarter.

“We anticipate that financial results will improve significantly as these reactivations are completed.

“Additionally, we have three uncontracted drillships remaining within our stacked fleet providing operational leverage to the improving floater market. We will be disciplined in exercising our operational leverage and will only return these assets to the active fleet for opportunities that provide meaningful returns.”