Petrofac set for 25% profits rise after glut of deal wins

Petrofac, the oil services company, today said a rush of contract wins will help its full-year profit soar 25% higher than last year.

The firm, which designs and builds oil and gas infrastructure and carries out safety training, said it had signed up work worth $6 billion (£3.7 billion) over the year.

It now expects 2009 profit after tax to hit at least $330 million, and said it expects to have an order book worth $7.8 billion at the end of December, almost double the $4 billion of work it reported at the end of 2008.

Petrofac said much of the work stemmed from its engineering and construction division, including two big new contracts to work on a North Sea project with BP and Apache.

Chief executive Ayman Asfari said: "Our competitive offering helped us secure new contracts in the Middle East, North Africa and the North Sea. The backlog gives us excellent revenue visibility for next year and beyond."