Global Marine Q1 Earnings Hit by Rig Downtime

Global Marine Inc.'s first quarter earnings before taxes were cut about $5.2 million by rig downtime, company officials said. Officials also said it will take a first quarter charge of about $5 million before taxes to cover the costs related to undisclosed staff cuts and office consolidations. These changes are expected to result in annual pretax savings of about $6 million, with about $4 million in savings expected to be realized this year, the company said in a statement. Since the beginning of 2000, Global Marine said, "the U.S. Gulf of Mexico rig market has remained strong and the West Africa market has continued to improve. "Unfortunately, while our two largest markets were improving, we experienced some unanticipated downtime in January and February 2000 that will reduce the earnings contribution of our deepwater fleet by about $5.2 million in the first quarter." It said the rig downtime, which will reduce net income about $3.6 million, was primarily related to repairs to the blowout preventer on drillship Glomar Explorer which is operating in West Africa waters for Texaco Inc.