Planned sell-offs of North Sea assets by majors such as Shell and Marathon Oil will boost business for oil-field service provider Petrofac, the company predicted.
In an upbeat assessment for its North Sea prospects, chief financial officer Tim Weller said the firm was “looking to benefit from any changes that do take place” in the North Sea, either through sales of fields and platforms or Sir Ian Wood’s recent proposals to make better use of North Sea infrastructure.
The firm, which employs 5,000 in Aberdeen, said North Sea contracts made up about a quarter of its total revenue, which hit £3.8billion in 2013.
“The proposals in the Wood Report and the Oil and Gas UK report has underlined the obvious further potential of the UKCS as a producing territory and the need through more efficient working to maximise production for the UK,” said Mr Weller. “The proposals being put forward all sound sensible to us.”
He said the North Sea was appealing to the oil services firm because of its “future potential”.
“We will probably see a number of significant brownfields changing hands. Therefore new owners may not necessarily have the operating skills and capabilities of the pre-existing owners and will be looking for the likes of Petrofac to help them to continue to exploit the asset they have invested in.
“We actually see it as an area of strong potential growth for us.”
Reporting annual results slightly ahead of expectation for 2013, Mr Weller said the firm started off 2014 in “a particularly strong position” thanks in part to a “record” order backlog of £9billion at the end of the year and a string of contract awards worth £1.8billion since the start of the year.
Petrofac said growth for the firm is expected to be flat in 2014 – but will pick up much more in 2015.
Mr Weller said this reflects phasing of projects won two or three years ago, which often take three to five years to execute.
Yet 2013 was a difficult year for the oil services sector with profit warnings from rivals such as Italy’s Saipem, France’s Technip and Norway’s Aker Solutions and Subsea 7.
Petrofac yesterday reported 2013 full-year net profit of £390.5million, up 3% on 2012, from revenue of £3.8billion, up 1%.
Earlier this month, loss-making Canadian explorer Talisman said it planned to “exit or dilute” its North Sea positions, where it employs 2,700 and operates 11 platforms.
Shell also announced plans to sell three North Sea fields as part of a £9billion asset sale programme.
In December, Houston-based Marathon, which employs more than 1,000 UK workers, announced plans to sell off its North Sea assets.