Perdana Petroleum - 2015 watch up year

2015 is the year to watch for Perdana Petroleum Bhd. By then, the offshore supply vessel (OSV) owner and operator will have taken delivery of all its new vessels and see full-year contributions from the six ships that it had secured long-term charters with major shareholder Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd worth a combined RM705mil.

From a loss of RM3.7mil for FY2012 market observers are projecting a return to profitability for Perdana Petroleum to RM50mil-RM60mil for FY2013, and thereafter a leap to RM70mil and RM90mil in 2014 and 2015.

This is not an impossible task for the marine vessel charterer, which has been profitable for five quarters now (Aug 2013) and won some RM1.2bil in new jobs since the start of 2013.

Offshore maintenance services concern Dayang, Perdana Petroleum’s single-largest shareholder with a 25% stake, was among the biggest winners of the RM10bil Pan Malaysia hook-up and commissioning (HUC) and topside maintenance umbrella contracts doled out by Murphy, Shell, and Petronas Carigali. Some RM3.3bil to RM4.1bil of those works went to Dayang.

The gap between current oil prices of above US$100 per barrel and the hurdle rate – the breakeven cost for oilfield operators – of US$40 has given fresh impetus for oil firms to hammer out better terms and longer tenures with vessel providers.

For Perdana Petroleum, whose fleet primarily consists of mid-sized anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) ships, as well as work barges and work boats, this was enough reason for it to expand “aggressively” over the past 12 months from Aug 2013.

Perdana Petroleum has 15 ships at its disposal, with one set to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2013 and two more in 2014, taking its OSV count to 18.

The vessels it had acquired are mostly for brownfield and maintenance jobs, and that it will its focus moving forward. Perdana Petroleum is eyeing HUC and enhanced oil recovery work.

Industry observers point out that a cyclical recovery in the OSV sector finally took hold in the second quarter of 2013, as can be observed in the earnings scorecards of listed OSV companies such as Perdana Petroleum and Alam Maritim Resources Bhd. Both of them logged better charter and utilization rates for the April to June 2013 period, as well as healthier bottomlines.