UK oil services group Petrofac reported a 25 per cent jump in profits for 2009 and said it had identified a further £131 billion of engineering contracts coming up for tender in its Middle East and African markets over the next two years.
The companyÔÇÖs order backlog doubled to $8.1 billion (approximately ┬ú5.3 billion) in 2009, despite many companies slashing their spending as a result of the downturn.
The companyÔÇÖs activities range from designing and building oil and gas infrastructure to safety training.
PetrofacÔÇÖs pre-tax profits rose from $358.4 million to $447.5 million, while group revenue rose 10 per cent from $3.3 billion to $3.7 billion, driven by strong growth in the companyÔÇÖs engineering and construction business.
Engineering and construction operating profit rose 33 per cent over the year to $321.6 million. Over the year, the engineering and construction unit built up a backlog of orders worth a total of $6.2 billion, as a result of strong demand from oil companies such as AlgeriaÔÇÖs Sonatrach and Saudi ArabiaÔÇÖs Aramco, who typically want gas processing facilities designed, built and upgraded.
A $100 million contract with TurkmenistanÔÇÖs national energy firm, Turkmengaz, helped to offset a 28 per cent fall in earnings in PetrofacÔÇÖs training and early stage studies arm.
Commenting on the results, Ayman Asfari, PetrofacÔÇÖs CEO, said: ÔÇ£Overall, 2009 was another excellent year. We have delivered record results and a record order intake, which gives us outstanding revenue visibility for the current year and beyond. ÔÇ£While 2009 was a challenging year for our industry, we were successful in growing our capacity and capability, investing in both our people and our systems, to ensure that we maintain our focus on strong operational performance.
ÔÇ£Through our differentiated and competitive offering, we remain well-positioned to benefit from ongoing investment in oil and gas projects by our key customers in our core markets, which we believe will underpin strong growth in our business in 2010 and over the medium-term.ÔÇØ
The company said it expected to benefit from investment in oil and gas projects in its core Middle East, North African and Caspian Sea markets in 2010, where it has identified over $200 billion (£131 billion) of projects that will come up for tender in the next three years.
Petrofac announced last week that it would spin off its North Sea oil assets from its energy developments division.
The company is now on the lookout for opportunities to invest in upstream projects, particularly marginal fields.
