Petrofac, a global provider of facility services to the oil and gas production and processing industry, said yesterday it was bidding on major contracts worth more than £5billion.
It said these were due to be awarded in the coming months and it expected its year-end order book to show good year-on-year growth.
Chief executive Ayman Asfari said most of the projects involved were outside the UK, in the Gulf of Mexico, central Asia and north Africa.
He added that the West Don and Don South West fields north-east of Shetland, where Petrofac Energy Developments is operator with interests of 28% and 60% respectively, were its major projects in the UK with a value of £400million.
The first of seven planned development wells has just begun drilling and first oil is expected within a year, with output from the two fields expected to reach a peak of 50,000 barrels of oil per day.
Mr Asfari, speaking after Petrofac revealed soaring revenue and profits for the first half of 2008, said buoyant demand for its services had led to an increase in its workforce of about 500 in the period to more than 10,000. This includes about 100 in Scotland, mostly in Aberdeen.
Petrofac acquired Eclipse Petroleum Technology, which has offices in Aberdeen, London, Stavanger, Houston and Dubai, last month for an initial £7million.
Mr Asfari said: “We continue to look at other bolt-on acquisitions and are currently evaluating two or three to broaden the depth of our offering.”
He said that notwithstanding recent reductions in forecast short-term global economic growth prospects, the broad environment in which the group operated remained underpinned by long-term factors and demand for its services continued to be very strong.
He added: “We expect to see significant investment in new and replacement production capacity by our customers, particularly in our core markets.
“Our bidding pipeline, particularly in the engineering and construction division, remains healthy and for next year is looking even healthier.”
Current market expectations for Petrofac’s net profits for the year to December 31 are from £114million to £131million.
Yesterday, the company reported pre-tax profits for the half-year of £87.4million, up from £63.73million a year earlier. Revenue for the period was up 49% to £788million.
Shares in the FTSE-100 company climbed more than 6% yesterday to 629.5p, making it the leading performer in the top flight.