Schlumberger has filed an 8-K with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, announcing an $800m writedown for their seismic survey fleet.

The UK-based marine seismic fleet WesternGeco, a Schlumberger subsidiary responsible for all their offshore geological surveyance, is expected to have its fleet reduced from 23 ships (in 2013) to 15 ships by the end of this quarter. The restructuring of the fleet will be focussed on the retirement of older vessels and those with higher running costs, with the remaining ships being converted to pick up the slack.

This reduction is estimated to incur a 'pretax impairment charge' in the region of $800 million, which Schlumberger do not expect will result in any 'significant cash expenditures', according to their regulatory filing made this past Tuesday 2nd December.

Tags: Schlumberger