BP's Iraq contract leads way as Petrofac reveals £1.3bn deals

ENERGY services group Petrofac said it has gained $2.1 billion (£1.3bn) in orders in the first six months of the year, including a contract with BP in Iraq announced this week.

The London-listed firm - which has a large operations base in Aberdeen and a training centre in Montrose - said in a trading update yesterday that it had a backlog of work of about $11.4bn, which it predicted would remain stable for the rest of the year.

Chief executive Ayman Asfari said: "We continue to deliver good operational performance across our portfolio of projects, including on the South Yoloten project in Turkmenistan, and we are well on course to deliver like-for-like net profit growth in 2011 of at least 15 per cent, in line with our previous guidance."

Petrofac's new one-year deal with BP is its second in Iraq and marks a further expansion in the war-torn oil producer. The $90 million inspection, maintenance and repair contract for the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq will be shared with a Chinese joint venture partner but will be led by Petrofac's offshore engineering and operations business and is worth $63m to the group.

Petrofac also announced that its long-standing chief financial officer, Keith Roberts, will retire from the group at the end of the year.

Roberts, 54, joined the firm in early 2002 and played a leading role in its 2005 flotation.

He will be replaced by Cable & Wireless Worldwide director Tim Weller.

Tony Shepard, analyst at Charles Stanley, said he was surprised by the change but added that Roberts was leaving the group in "excellent health".

"It has a strong order book which gives excellent revenue visibility and the balance sheet is strong," he said.

Despite being impressed by the figures, which suggest it could double its recurring 2010 earnings by 2015, Charles Stanley rated Petrofac a "hold" in the short term, noting that shares were already "up with events".