Oil industry services group Aker Solutions saw its third quarter order backlog grow, despite a 27% drop in profits, as it prepares for a rush of North Sea orders.
The company, which last month agreed to sell off its mooring and loading business for £146million to Cargotec, posted third quarter profits of £41.7million, down from £57million in the same period last year.
But the order backlog at the firm rose to £631million (NOK60.6billion), up from £622million the previous year despite June’s cancellation of a the Category B rig contract.
The company said it expected offshore expenditure to grow by up to 10% in the next few years, and anticipated increased subsea contracts from the North Sea, Brazil and West Africa during that time.
‘Significant’ FEED studies and subsea orders are expected over the next year in particular from UK and Norwegian North Sea projects.
“Improvement programmes in several business areas, including umbilicals, subsea and well-intervention services, started to pay off in the third quarter,” said chairman Øyvind Eriksen.
“We passed some important milestones, with the Skandi Aker vessel beginning a two-year contract in September and with the delivery in July of the Ekofisk Zulu platform, which achieved first oil production in October.”
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