Offshore engineering and training group Petrofac yesterday said it expects to record a profits boost of “at least 15%” as it closes in its year end.
The company, which operates training bases in Montrose as part of a string of sites across the North-East of the country, said its operations continued to perform in line with its ambitious targets.
It added that, on the basis of awards already announced, its backlog of work would grow in value to $11.6 billion (£7.1 billion) by December 31, up from $10.8bn at the same time last year.
The firm has a long-standing aim to double its recurrent 2010 net profit of $433m by 2015.
Group chief executive Ayman Asfari said this year had marked another period of good growth, which would take that measure to about $620m. He highlighted a strong engineering order intake and good progress in energy services divisions.
“In our engineering, construction, operations and maintenance (ECOM) division, we continue to deliver very good operational performance,” he said.
“Despite a number of bidding processes extending into next year, we have secured an order intake in the year to date of $5.3bn, with major project awards in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and the UK.
“We continue to experience high levels of bidding activity and we see a strong pipeline of bidding opportunities for 2013.”
Mr Asfari added that new enhancement contracts in Mexico, with oilfield services provider Schlumberger, and Cameroon, with Edinburgh’s Africa-focused oil and gas group Bowleven, marked “good progress” for the firm’s service division.
“These new awards, together with the achievement of significant milestones on our other integrated energy services projects, are helping to build long-term sustainable earnings for the group,” he said.
“Overall, we are well positioned to grow next year and beyond and we are confident of achieving our target of more than doubling our recurring 2010 group earnings by 2015.”
The group told the markets it continues to anticipate growth and a strong pipeline of bidding opportunities in the Middle East, North Africa, and the former Soviet states.
Offshore projects continue to perform well, with “high levels” of bidding, while energy and consulting services have been awarded a number of front-ended engineering and design and conceptual studies.
Integrated energy services also made progress on its operations in Romania, while key milestones were met on the Berantai risk service contract in Malaysia.
Two new wells in Tunisia have also been drilled, with the expectation that they could extend the scope of production in the oil plateau available. City analysts were upbeat after the update, but shares closed down 19p, or 1.1%, at 1,661p.
“We remain positive on Petrofac ahead of our expectations for record onshore and offshore order intake over the next six-12 months, offering attractive prospects for earnings upgrades,” said JP Morgan’s Andrew Dobbing.
business@thecourier.co.uk