Strong start to year at Petrofac

15th May 2009 07:17

Petrofac has made a strong start to the year, chairman Rodney Chase will tell shareholders at today's AGM, with the oil and gas facilities provider's backlog doubling to $8.2bn at the end of April.Chase is confident 2009 will be another year of strong growth after its biggest business, engineering and construction, bagged $5bn of new contracts in the first quarter of the year.The wins in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Algeria give high revenue visibility through to 2011, he said. About $6.7bn of Petrofac's order backlog is accounted for by the unit, up from $2.4bn at the end of 2008.Offshore engineering & operations, engineering services, training and production solutions businesses have performed broadly in line with expectations so far this year, although they are seeing early evidence of customers adjusting discretionary spending plans. The company's financial position received a boost, with gross cash balances now above $900m thanks to advances from customers on new engineering and construction projects.