Hunting Regulatory News (HTG)

13 Dec 2007 07:01

Hunting PLC13 December 2007 13 December 2007 Hunting PLC ("Hunting", the "Group") Pre-Close Trading Update Hunting's preliminary results for the full year to 31 December 2007 will beannounced on 28 February 2008. Dennis Proctor, Hunting's Chief Executive, said; "The Group's current trading is strong with an order book running well into nextyear, and despite the US Dollar weakness, we expect year end results to be inline with market expectations. On a constant currency basis, our pre-tax profitswould be significantly exceeding expectations. The majority of Hunting's growth this year will be from Hunting Energy. The WellCompletion division will see a material increase in operating profit due toadditional capacity and client rig activity. Well Construction and Exploration &Production should see very significant improvements over last year. In Gibson Energy, most divisions are expecting year-on-year increases with theexception of our Marketing group. Due to the rapid increase in the oil price inthe second half of this year, the Canadian oil market moved into backwardationwhich removed incentives for storage and added additional cost factors. Further,heavy and sour oil differentials have risen in lock step with the West TexasIntermediate price. We have taken the necessary steps to adjust to this extremevolatility and are confident the Marketing group will remain a significantcontributor to Gibson's earnings. Truck Transportation is experiencing anotherrecord year due to the increased volumes of crude oil activity. Moose JawRefinery should deliver results similar to those of 2006 following a slow startin the first half. Canwest Propane continues to benefit from prior acquisitionsand expanded operations. Oil and gas company capital expenditure is expected to be around 7% above 2006levels. Early indications suggest an 11% improvement in 2008. Accordingly, weexpect continued growth from our acquisitions, capital expenditure andadditional market share gains from increased capacity in Asia, Europe and theUnited States." For further information, please contact: Hunting PLCDennis Proctor, Chief Executive Tel: 020 7321 0123Dennis Clark, Finance Director Tel: 020 7321 0123 Hogarth Partnership Limited Tel: 020 7357 9477Andrew JaquesAnthony Arthur Notes to Editors: Hunting PLC is an international oil services company providing solutions to theworld's oil and gas companies. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange