Neptune nails more offshore services deals

The new deals bring to $75m the value of deals done in the past two months.

The new Australian and UK contracts included:

• Fabrication, testing and load-out of subsea ‘J’ and ‘E’ spools along with associated installation cradles and spreader beams for Woodside’s Greater Enfield Area Project 09.

• Construction support on BHP Billiton’s Pyrenees Oilfield Development utilising the Neptune Trident dynamic positioning class 2 vessel.

• A five-month program of specialist rope access, heavy equipment lifting/rigging, non-destructive testing inspection, confined space entry/rescue and electrical inspection services offshore in Western Australia.

• Detailed drafting and fabrication services to the UK's Pelamis Wave Power for the manufacture of the P2 Pelamis Wave Energy Converter joint modules.

Involving both Neptune’s UK business units, the Pelamis work included engineering, design, procurement, inspection, supply, fabrication, testing and delivery of the completed modules.

The Neptune Trident had recently been retrofitted with a mezzanine deck and a fully remote-operated vehicle spread, the company said.

Neptune managing director and chief executive Christian Lange hailed the company's pipeline of work, particularly in light of the current gloomy global outlook, saying that group revenues had for the March quarter this year "remained robust" at $48m and $145m for the financial year to date.

Earlier this month, State One Stockbroking had observed that the company had spent more than $95m on acquisitions in the past two years, effectively acting as a consolidator for the industry, but had offset any transition risk by retaining existing managment.

With demand for Neptune's services expected to increase, growth would be "driven by increasing its capacity, both organically and with further acquisitions" and that the company's growth was likely to be significant "for the foreseeable future".