SapuraKencana gets 14 jobs worth RM5.1bil

KUALA LUMPUR: Oil and gas giant, SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd, has secured 14 opportunities worldwide adding approximately RM5.1bil to the groups order book for its financial year ended Jan 31, 2015 (FY15).

President and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin said the opportunities comprised five new contracts and nine contract extensions.

"This year, we took delivery of two new tender barges, expanded operations in West Africa and completed two contracts in Myanmar.

"The group has generated revenue of RM9.9bil and profit before tax of RM 1.6bil for the just ended financial year compared with RM8.4bil and RM1.2bil recorded, respectively for FY14," Shahril said in a statement following the announcement of the group's FY15 results today. 

The better performance was primarily due to the inclusion of its wholly-owned subsidiary, SapuraKencana Energy Inc (SKEI)'s business, subsequent to completion of its acquisition on Feb 11, 2014.

Shahril said, correspondingly, the groups earnings per share rose 27% from 18.9 sen to 23.9 sen per share in that same period.

"Both Brazilian pipe-laying support vessels (PLSVs) were delivered ahead of schedule and were currently operating at more than 99% utilisation. 

"In addition, we also took delivery of SK 1200 and SK 3500 which have successfully completed their maiden projects in China and Thailand," he said. 

Shahril said the energy division produced 5.1 million barrels of oil equivalent from Peninsula Malaysia fields. 

"We had a 100% exploration success rate with 5 significant gas discoveries in the SK408 project in offshore Sarawak, totaling more than 3 trillion cubic feet of gas. 

"We also signed two new exploration blocks in Sabah (SB331  and  SB332) and signed a US$400mil acquisition of three production sharing contracts in Vietnam with PetronasCarigali," he said, adding that the projects had positioned SapuraKencana for future growth through expansion to new markets.

Going forward, Shahril said he expected the market to remain challenging due to volatility in oil prices but was confident with the group's continued focus on operational effectiveness, cost optimisation and aggressive drive to win new businesses worldwide. - Bernama