As oil recovers, new contracts trickle in for SembMarine and Keppel

SINGAPORE (Feb 12): Oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP, which are present in the entire oil and gas value chain — from exploration, production and refining to motorway stations — have had a tremendous 2017. Their outlook for energy and their committed capital expenditure are important because they are the end-customers of locally listed offshore service vessel providers and shipyards.

On Feb 6, BP announced that 4QFY2017 net earnings quadrupled y-o-y to US$2.1 billion ($2.8 billion) versus US$400 million in the same quarter a year ago. Net profit for FY2017 more than doubled to US$7.17 billion. In a call to analysts, chief financial officer Brian Gilvary said BP would continue to drive down its breakeven costs from US$50 a barrel to as low as US$30 a barrel.

On Feb 1, Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell, said in a results teleconference: “It has been a great year. It has been a transformative year. We said 2017 would be a year of delivery and we have delivered.”

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