WELLSTREAM Holdings, the Newcastle-headquartered manufacturer of flexible pipes for the oil and gas industry, said yesterday that its performance for the year to date had been good.
Chairman John Kennedy told the annual meeting that, following record results in 2008, the performance had been encouraging against a backdrop of challenging trading conditions and some volatility in input costs.
But the order book continued to be strong, with projects awarded under a framework agreement with Petrobras underpinning an order backlog in excess of £280million, securing more than 85% of 2009’s anticipated revenues.
Tullow Oil also said yesterday it had performed strongly in 2009 to date and maintained a 100% success rate with drilling operations in both Ghana and Uganda, where the Tweneboa-1 and Giraffe-1 wells yielded substantial new discoveries.
In addition it had strengthened its balance sheet by securing a £1.32billion bank facility and completing a £402million equity placing.
Norwegian seismic survey group Petroleum Geo-Services is planning to sell assets worth over £132million or reduce the number of vessels it operates. The company says too many vessels are pushing down margins against a background of less exploration spending.
PGS, which last year bought Edinburgh University spin-out electromagnetic survey specialist MTEM, yesterday reported earnings of £62.25million in January-March, down from £157.6million.