One of the UAE’s best-known fabricators, Lamprell, has said it has a strong order book going forward to 2010, with no cancellations despite the global financial crisis.
It made the remark at the end of March. The company has been hard at work implementing orders and completed earlier in March the commissioning and delivery of the self-propelled liftboat Seajacks Kraken to Seajacks International. Significant progress has been made in the construction of a second liftboat, the Seajacks Leviathan and its launch could occur later this year.
Also progressing is work on new jackups for Scorpion Offshore with the Offshore Freedom just completed and the Offshore Mischief set for delivery later this year Scorpion has completed full funding needs for the first rig and has arranged financing for a progress payment on the second unit.
Awaiting completion towards the end of this year is the lumpsum turnkey construction contract with BassDril for a self-erecting, tender-assist drilling unit. Another newbuild jackup, the Le Tourneau-designed self-elevating Super 116E-class mobile offshore drilling platform commissioned by Riginvest GP, should be completed in November 2010. The board is cautious about prospects for further newbuild jackups. Despite the uncertain economic outlook, it pressed on with its expansion programme and the new facility at Hamriyah has been constructed. This facility has a developed area of 250,000 sq m with a deepwater berthing quay wall 1,250 m long and 9 m deep.
The facility should give Lamprell more flexibility, allowing it to work on up to 10 rigs at once and to build up to three new jackups. It will also be able to refurbish drillships and drilling semi-submersibles, a service previously constrained by space and water depth limitations.
The company is also developing and expanding its yard at Jebel Ali, and it has also completed a new 46,950 sq m (505,365 sq ft) facility with a 158 m deep water quayside in Sattahip, Thailand.
The company posted higher full-year profit, but slashed its final dividend by 74 per cent citing the difficult market conditions.
“It has become apparent in recent weeks that there is a marked slowdown in the company’s business except for the rig refurbishment business which is currently busy but is anticipated to slowdown in the second half of the year,” the company said in late March.
For the year ended December 2008, the company’s adjusted net profit was $95.5 million, compared with $86.2 million in the year-ago period.
Revenue rose 58.5 per cent to $740.8 million. Analysts on average expected $630.7 million, according to Reuters estimates.
Lamprell has played a prominent role in the development of the offshore industry in the Arabian Gulf for over 30 years, in later years providing specialised services to the onshore and offshore oil and gas industry. Its three primary facilities are in Port Khalid and the Hamriyah Free Zone, both of which are in the Emirate of Sharjah, and in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, in the Emirate of Dubai.
