Petrofac plays down lack of contracts

OIL services firm Petrofac yesterday said it was confident it would win additional contracts this year to keep on track to more than double earnings by 2015.

Analysts at Oriel Securities said the lack of recent contract awards raised concerns about the company’s ability to meet its forecasts.

But the group, which has a major operational base in Aberdeen and a training centre in Montrose, said it was seeing a strong pipeline of opportunities across both its oil and gas infrastructure business and its field investment interests.

Although it said it was seeing “significant competition” in its key Middle East and North African markets, Petrofac said it expected profit to grow by at least 15 per cent this year. The full-year figures for 2011 showed revenues up 33 per cent to $5.8 billion (£3.65bn) with net profit up 25 per cent to $539.4 million.

Chief financial officer Tim Weller said it had been a busy start to the current year for the firm. “There is a lot going on in our core markets in terms of new customer investment and we expect to see very healthy growth in new orders in 2012 compared with 2011.”

Shares in Petrofac closed up 21p at 1,595p.