Petrofac said yesterday its plans for the Greater Stella area of the North Sea should soon be ready to move to the next stage.
Tim Weller, the energy service giant’s chief financial officer said UK Government approval of the field-development plan was likely to come by the end of June.
Petrofac is taking a 20% stake in Greater Stella in exchange for an 80% interest in a £27million semisubmersible floating production vessel (FPV) to be used in the project.
In an update alongside annual results, Petrofac said its offshore projects and operations arm would carry out an upgrade on the FPV ahead of its work on the £630million Greater Stella development.
The division will also provide dutyholder services to the FPV under a life-of-field deal covering three North Sea licences.
Mr Weller said the different type of model for Greater Stella, in the central North Sea, could be used elsewhere in the region and also globally to help operators access new resources or raise output from existing ones.
The other partners in Greater Stella are Aberdeen-based Ithaca and Dyas UK, who are taking the 80% stake in the FPV. Mr Weller also said there was no sign of the trepidation some people were expecting in the North Sea after last year’s £10billion tax grab by the chancellor. He added: “Companies and resource-holders are continuing to invest, which is great for service providers such as ourselves.”
Petrofac, which has just been awarded a contract renewal – worth £80million – to continue as dutyholder on Centrica’s Kittiwake platform in the UK North Sea, employs 4,000 people in Aberdeen among a 15,400-strong global workforce.
Mr Weller said expected growth – the company is looking to double its 2010 profits within three years – was likely to lead to employee numbers worldwide ballooning to nearly 20,000 by 2015. He added: “I would expect Aberdeen to have its fair share of that increase.”
Petrofac said UK operations, including sites in the Granite City, showed the strongest growth in its training service division last year.
The company reported a 1.8% increase in overall pre-tax profits in 2011, to £429million, on revenue up 33% at £3.7billion.
Petrofac highlighted net profits – the total attributable to shareholders – of just under £340million last year, a 25% increase from 2010.
Alan MacPhee, an investment manager at financial-planning and wealth-management specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, said: “Given the current buoyancy of the oil and gas sector, it is not surprising that Petrofac has announced yet another set of results ahead of market expectations.
“Petrofac’s business model has always been about continued strong growth, with the board retaining the majority of profits to facilitate further expansion.
“The strength of Petrofac’s full-year results should bode well for the oil and gas service sector.
“With demand likely to increase in the next few years, the read-across for others in the sector and for the north-east as a whole looks positive.”
