European Services Firms Technip, Dolphin Report Upbeat Results

The European oilfield services sector enjoyed good news Wednesday as two firms issued results that showed their respective businesses performed well in 2014. French oilfield engineering firm Technip and Norwegian seismic survey specialist Dolphin Group both said that they had built strong order books that should stand them in good stead during a period of low oil prices.

The upbeat results follow last Friday's robust fourth-quarter results from Norwegian oilfield services firm Aker Solutions, although that news has since been tempered by Aker's announcement Wednesday that it plans to cut its domestic workforce in response to lower demand. Monday saw UK oilfield services business Hunting announce it would cut jobs due to a declining rig count.

Technip reported that it achieved an order intake of $17.4 billion during 2014, bringing its order backlog to a record $23.8 billion.

Technip expects revenue from its Subsea operations during 2015 to be between $5.9 billion and $6.3 billion, while revenues from Onshore/Offshore operations is expected to come in at approximately $6.8 billion – making for total revenue for 2015 of between $12.7 billion and $13.1 billion. For 2014 the company reported total revenue of $10.7 billion – which was 15.5 percent greater than that for 2013.

The firm's operating profit at the EBITDA level grew by 5.3 percent to $1.26 billion.

Technip Chairman and CEO Thierry Pilenko commented in a company statement: 

"Technip starts 2015 in a strong position. During 2014, Technip won a record amount of new work with order intake of EUR 15.3 billion resulting in a EUR 21 billion backlog of high quality and diversified projects."