Oil well manufacturer Hunting traded ahead of expectations in the first half of 2023, its management has said, thanks to especially strong performance in its oil country tubular goods and its subsea and advanced manufacturing segments.
The FTSE 250 firm, which in last month booked a £70m order – it’s biggest ever – from Kuwait Oil Company, said in an update that its sales order book for the year to June 30 was $700m (£546m) compared to £441m in the six months to the end of December 2023.
It expects its revenue to rise to $492m in the first half from $478m in the same period last year, while its EBITDA margin is up slightly from 10 per cent to 12 per cent.
The improved performance was largely down to the bumper order book it fostered with Kuwait Oil, which has already ordered at total of $231m (£180m) from the British firm.
But its perforating systems division suffered minor headwinds in the period, which the company has sought partially to rectify with a cost-cutting programme which it hopes will save $6-7m (£4.7-5.5m)
The update, which the firm is issuing ahead of its half-year results on August 29, also included progress on the firm’s green energy transition, with geothermal orders having been booked from Asia, Europe and North America.
Hunting has been a major beneficiary of energy giants’ return to oil and gas, having posted a 28 per cent increase in revenue and nearly doubling its EBITDA in its most recent full year results.
A majority of oil supermajors have doubled down on oil production in recent months. Shell’s new CEO, Wael Sawan slowed his firm’s investment in renewable technology in June lasat year, and on Monday, the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, said it expects the combustion engine to be a round for a “very, very, long time” after taking up a 10 per cent stake in a non-EV engine maker Horse Powertrain.