Petrofac reports modest half-year growth

25th Jun 2013 07:05

Oilfield service company Petrofac reported "modest growth" in half-year net profit driven by a strong operational performance and an active project portfolio. In a trading update for the six months to end of June, the firm said it secured $2.6bn of order intake. The group backlog stood at $11.9bn at the end of May, up slightly from the $11.8bn at the end of December 2012."We have made good progress in the year to date, achieving a number of key milestones," said Chief Executive, Ayman Asfari. "We continue to see strong demand for our services, which, together with our competitive positioning, should see us grow our Onshore Engineering and Construction backlog over the course of the year."In its onshore portfolio, the El Merk gas processing facility in Algeria and the Asab oil field development in Abu Dhabi was commissioned and the company is in the process of handing over the key utilities on the South Yoloten project in Turkmenistan. Following a terrorist attack in January at the In Amenas natural gas site in Algeria, Petrofac evacuated its staff on a temporary basis from the In Salah southern fields development in that country. The company expects to recommence full site operations during the second half of 2013. Given the rephasing of the In Salah southern fields development, Petrofac expects revenues and profits for the year to be significantly weighted towards the second half of the year. In the company's offshore portfolio, the group was awarded a $50m three-year operations and maintenance contract in June for Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production. Overall, the company's net debt remained unchanged at $0.3bn, due to investment in Integrated Energy Services (IES) projects and the unwinding of cash advances on onshore projects. IES projects included fields in Mexico, Malaysia and Cameroon.Petrofac anticipates it will remain in a net debt position throughout the remainder of the year due to ongoing deployment of cash on IES projects and initial investment in offshore projects.RD