The high oil price is driving upstream investments in the energy sector, the boss of a major engineering and construction firm to the industry said today.
Technip chief executive Thierry Pilenko made the comment as the French firm announced a 17.5% rise in pre-tax profits in the third quarter to £149million, compared with £128million in the third quarter of 2010.
He said: “Our order intake accelerated to over £2billion, reflecting the positive trends in our industry that we highlighted in the first half of 2011.”
But he also warned there were still risks in the market, including the strength of competition, general and widespread economic political uncertainties impacting project timetables – especially those requiring financing.
Technip, which employs more than 800 people at Westhill, near Aberdeen, had revenues of £1.48billion in the third quarter, up 12.3% compared to £1.3billion in the same period in 2010.
Mr Pilenko said a proposed £959million acquisition of Global Industries may go ahead earlier than expected and that talks between the two firms on an integration process had begun.
Global Industries is a leading solutions provider of offshore construction, engineering, project management and support services.