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Petrofac in record order book haul

Petrofac opened a new fire and emergency training centre in Montose earlier this year.
Petrofac opened a new fire and emergency training centre in Montose earlier this year.

Impressive growth in new business at Petrofac has helped the order book at the oil and gas service and engineering group grow to its strongest-ever level, it’s been revealed.

The firm said it had snared new work worth $6.8 billion during the first six months of the 2014, taking its backlog to more than $20bn for the first time.

Chief executive Ayman Asfari told markets the firm’s engineering, construction, operations and maintenance (ECOM) division had enjoyed a “good start” to the year.

“The group’s backlog stands at record levels, giving us good revenue visibility for the rest of this year and beyond,” he said.

“Our pipeline of bidding opportunities remains attractive, which, together with our strong competitive position, should see us secure a number of further awards over the second half of the year.”

The trading update also sought to reassure investors over the company’s operations in Iraq, following the ongoing insurgency in the north of the war-torn country.

It stressed that its business there represents “less than 5%” of expected revenues this year, and is focussed in the south and east of the country.

“While we continue to monitor events closely, there has been no significant impact on our current operations to date,” Petrofac said.

The company, which earlier this year completed a £1.5m investment in its fire and emergency response training centre in Montrose, said it was continuing restructuring efforts in its integrated energy services (IES) arm.

Meanwhile, Mr Asfari said the division remained focussed on improving its performance on problematic projects in the North Sea and Romania.

“Whilst we continue to see strong demand for the provision of integrated services, we are prioritising those opportunities which make best use of our existing core areas of strength, offer clear synergies with ECOM, and deliver attractive returns on capital employed,” he said.

The company has already been forced to downgrade profit expectations for the year, and said it was on course for the revised $580m to $600m range.

But it also said the phasing of work was significantly weighted towards the second half, preparing markets for interim results which may fall behind the anticipated run rate when they are published in late August.

Petrofac also confirmed it plans sailaway for its FPF-1 floating production, storage and offloading vessel destined for the delay hit Greater Stella area in the North Sea in the spring, with first production slated for 12 months from now.