Petrofac happy with bullish profit prediction

17th Dec 2010 07:05

Petrofac, the oilfield services provider, thinks net profit for 2010 will be up by a fifth, in line with expectations, while the year-end order backlog should be a new record.In a statement ahead of full-year results due on 7 March, the company said it should match the $416.3m profit forecast by analysts.An anticipated year-end backlog position of around $8.4bn, about $5.7bn of which is from the engineering & construction unit, is up on the $8.1bn reported a year ago, and that's without the potential award of the South Yoloten project in Turkmenistan. "We are pleased with our excellent operational performance during the year to date and we are confident of delivering record results for 2010 in line with expectations for strong growth," chief executive Ayman Asfari said. "Our good current prospects and excellent revenue visibility underpin our confidence that we will deliver continued strong growth in the coming year and beyond."The engineering & construction and offshore engineering & operations businesses have both done well, though engineering services has had a "subdued" year in terms of work for external customers. A recovery is expected "as we move into 2011". Petrofac is looking at "a number of opportunities" in upstream oil & gas assets and energy infrastructure, which includes equity investments and risk service contracts, and we are continuing to build our co-investment capability. Our operational assets are performing in line with expectations.