Petrofac said yesterday it expected to deliver profits after tax in 2009 of at least £203million, up 25% on the previous year.
The FTSE 100-listed international oil and gas facility service provider said the success was as a result of securing new contracts during the year and continued good progress across most of its businesses.
Petrofac has a strong presence in the UK North Sea and thousands of employees based in Aberdeen.
Chief executive Ayman Asfari said: “In a year that has been very challenging for the oil and gas service industry, we are delighted with our performance and the record revenue and profits we expect to deliver.
“During 2009, we have secured more than £3.7billion of new contracts in the Middle East, north Africa and, most recently, in the UK North Sea, and the high level of backlog we are now carrying gives us excellent revenue visibility for next year and beyond. Our strong performance has enabled us to continue to invest in the business both in systems but, most importantly, in our people and I am pleased that we have been able to attract further high-calibre personnel to Petrofac. We look forward to the coming year with considerable confidence.”
Petrofac said that, in engineering and construction, it had achieved a record order intake during the year of more than £3billion and it had a healthy pipeline of bidding prospects for 2010.
It said that, as anticipated earlier in the year, it had seen an increase in tendering activity in offshore engineering and operations and it had been successful in securing new contract awards and extensions, including two significant wins in the UK North Sea with BP and Apache.
The company added that it was bidding for work both in the UK and internationally.
Petrofac said that, in engineering, training services and production solutions, activity had been generally subdued, although it was anticipating a modest improve-ment in 2010.
Its energy development division was expected to produce 2009 output from its operated Don fields north-east of Shetland of about 3million barrels. Production rates were expected to rise in 2010 from about 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) towards a peak of around 30,000bpd.
The group’s order backlog is expected to be about £4.8billion at December 31, with about £3.82billion from engineering and construction – up from £1.48billion a year earlier – and the rest from its other business units, unchanged from a year ago.
Petrofac shares closed up 7.5p at 978.5p.
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