PETROFAC this morning reported a surge in its order backlog in the last six months.
The international service provider to the energy industry is looking to a brighter future after going through a tough time.
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The order backlog at the end of this month was expected to be £4.4billion – compared to $2.67billion at the end of 2022.
Petrofac also said it was well positioned to continue backlog growth in both engineering & construction (E&C) and asset solutions, with a healthy group pipeline scheduled for award in the next 18 months of £57.3billion.
The group has around 8,000 employees across more than 30 offices.
It has had a base in Aberdeen since 2002, and other UK locations are Great Yarmouth, Woking and London. Britain’s North Sea is among its core markets.
In today’s trading update, chief executive Tareq Kawash said: “In the first six months of the year, we have announced over $3.5billion (£2.75billion) in new work across E&C and asset solutions, in both the traditional and new-energy sectors, and continue to pursue a strong pipeline of future opportunities in core geographies.
“By further progressing our plans to strengthen the financial position of the group by unlocking the working capital built up through the pandemic, and building on the momentum of the significant awards won in the first half, we are focused on delivering Petrofac’s potential.
“We have an exceptional EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) and operations capability that is well positioned to deliver and support critical energy infrastructure for the world’s leading resource holders.”
Petrofac’s share price are well off their peaks achieved in the last decade.
They rose to more than £15 back in 2012, but fell to less than 50p in March.
They have recovered a bit of ground since then and were at just under 72p shortly after opening this morning.
In April, Petrofac confirmed that it had fallen further into the red in its last financial year, with Covid taking a toll on its performance.
The group reported EBITDA losses of £110million in 2022, compared to a deficit of £69million the year before.
Net losses widened to £248million from £196million previously.
Revenues fell to £2.076billion, as against £2.434billion in 2021.
Mr Kawash said in April that Petrofac’s performance for 2022 was severely impacted by the challenges in the group’s legacy energy & construction portfolio, which continued to feel the direct and indirect effects of pandemic delays.
He added then: “We are working resolutely to put these challenges behind us, and to rebuild our backlog – such as the recent multi-year, multi-platform framework agreement in support of TenneT’s 2GW offshore-wind programme.”
At the end of March, Petrofac and Hitachi Energy said they had secured the landmark deal with TenneT worth around £11.6billion.
The Dutch-German transmission system operator is working to expand offshore wind capacity.
The framework agreement – the largest in Petrofac’s history – covers six projects.
