Petrofac Regulatory News (PFC)

30 Jun 2009 07:00



30 June 2009

PETROFAC LIMITED

TRADING UPDATE

Petrofac, the international oil & gas facilities service provider, issues the following pre-close trading update ahead of the announcement of its interim results for the six months ending 30 June 2009, expected to be on 24 August 2009.

The group has had a good start to the year and is increasingly confident that 2009 will be another year of strong growth. 

In Engineering & Construction, the group has made good progress on the US$5.0 billion of new contract awards secured in the first quarter of the year. The majority of construction subcontracts have been agreed and a significant proportion of activities in relation to the procurement of materials and equipment have been completed, which gives the group a high level of confidence that these projects will be delivered in line with initial expectations.

The Offshore Engineering & Operations, Engineering Services, Training and Production Solutions' business units continue to perform broadly in line with expectations. Tender activity, particularly for brownfield engineering prospects in Offshore Engineering & Operations, has increased in recent weeks, leading to new business opportunities.

In Energy Developments, the first tanker shipment of approximately 472,000 barrels of oil from the Don field has been delivered to a terminal in Rotterdam. Following commencement of production from the West Don field in late April, we expect commencement of production from two wells on the Don Southwest field in the next few days. Plateau production on the Don fields is expected to be achieved in early 2010 after commissioning of the permanent export route over the Thistle platform.

With year to date order intake across the group of US$5.4 billion, including US$5.0 billion of new Engineering & Construction project awards, total backlog is expected to be approximately US$8.0 billion at 30 June 2009 (31 December 2008: US$4.0 billion), comprising approximately US$6.5 billion from the Engineering & Construction business (31 December 2008: US$2.4 billion) and approximately US$1.5 billion across the other business units (31 December 2008: US$1.6 billion).

The group has continued its strong cash generation and, notwithstanding that an advance payment on a recent contract award of around US$300 million is expected to be received early in the second half of the year, expects its gross cash balances to be around US$850 million at 30 June 2009.

Ends

Conference call

A telephone conference call for analysts and investors will be held at 9am today (please contact Bell Pottinger for details). 

For further information, please contact:

Petrofac Limited +44 (0) 20 7811 4900

Ayman Asfari, Group Chief Executive

Keith Roberts, Chief Financial Officer

Jonathan Low, Head of Investor Relations

Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial +44 (0) 20 7861 3232

Ann-marie Wilkinson

Olly Scott

  Petrofac

Petrofac is a leading international provider of facilities solutions to the oil & gas production and processing industry, with a diverse customer portfolio including many of the world's leading integrated, independent and national oil & gas companies. Petrofac is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: PFC).

The group delivers services through seven business units: Engineering & Construction, Engineering & Construction Ventures, Engineering Services, Offshore Engineering & Operations, Training, Production Solutions and Energy Developments.

Through these businesses Petrofac designs and builds oil & gas facilities; operates, maintains and manages facilities and trains personnel; enhances production; and, where it can leverage its service capability, develops and co-invests in upstream and infrastructure projects. Petrofac's range of services meets its customers' needs across the full life cycle of oil & gas assets.

With more than 11,000 employees, Petrofac operates out of five strategically located operational centres, in Aberdeen, Sharjah, Woking, Chennai and Mumbai and a further 19 offices worldwide. The predominant focus of Petrofac's business is on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), the Middle East and Africa, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Asia Pacific region.

For additional information, please refer to the Petrofac website at www.petrofac.com.