The investments will be in new vessels and equipment upgrade, says the vice-chairman of the energy services firm
ENERGY services firm Sapuracrest Petroleum expects to spend up to US$300 million in capital expenditure next year to buy new vessels and upgrade equipment, a top company official said.
"$200 million, $300 million," vice-chairman Shahril Shamsuddin told Reuters in an interview today.
"We've got quite a lot of investments going forward. Again, it's infrastucture, putting in infrastructure."
Shares of Sapurecrest have nearly doubled over the last year, valuing the company at RM1.7 billion (US$504 million), as crude oil hovers near US$100 a barrel.
Sapuracrest's key activities include offshore oil and gas drilling, installation offshore platforms and pipelines, marine services and operations and maintenance, with 80 percent of its earning coming from the oil and gas and installation divisions.
Shahril said the company had an order book of RM6 billion and earned about a third of its revenue from operations overseas in countries such as India, Thailand, Brunei and Australia.
"Thirty per cent, already, oil and gas alone, " Shahril said, when asked what fraction of revenue the company earned overseas. "I think in two years, it'll be 50:50," he added.
Sapuracrest earned net profit of RM11.2 million on revenue of nearly RM571 million for the second quarter to July 31, an increase of 42 per cent from a year earlier, stock exchange data shows.
Shares of Sapuracrest were down 5.4 per cent at RM1.41 by 0752 GMT today. - Reuters
