EANS-News: C.A.T. oil benefits from strong demand for its new high-class
conventional drilling rigs
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Company Information
Subtitle: New orders for conventional drilling enable to get 80% of the new
capacity contracted for 2012
Seven out of nine conventional drilling rigs already successfully marketed
Additional orders expected due to ongoing strong demand
Total order book volume increases to EUR 284 million for 2012
Vienna, April 4 2012 (euro adhoc) - C.A.T. oil AG (O2C, ISIN: AT0000A00Y78), one
of the leading providers of oil and gas field services in Russia and Kazakhstan,
has made further progress in marketing its newly established high-class
conventional drilling service. The Company received additional conventional
drilling orders worth EUR 17 million by its long-standing customer Gazprom Neft.
Thus, at the end of Q1 seven out of the nine new drillings rigs were
successfully marketed. Thanks to these additional orders, C.A.T. oil´s 2012
order book, which comprises of orders for fracturing, sidetrack drilling and
conventional drilling, has improved to EUR 284 million (based on a
rouble-to-euro exchange rate of 40). Compared to the same period last year this
represents an increase of 28% and reflects the continuing strong demand for oil
field services in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Manfred Kastner, CEO of C.A.T. oil AG, said: "Our decision to make significant
investments in organic growth and set up conventional drilling as a third core
business line has been clearly rewarded. We see strong demand for these services
and have successfully marketed our new rigs for 2012. By the end of March we
obtained service orders for 80% of our new rigs. We continue to market our
remaining two rigs in full swing and are confident that we win additional orders
in the near future."
The nine new rigs are part of the Company´s 2011-12 EUR 150 million investment
program to accelerate organic growth and diversify the service offering. During
2011 C.A.T. oil set up conventional drilling as a third core service line by
adding state-of-the-art North American rigs to its operating capacity.
The first rig was put into operations in July 2011 and the remaining ones were
successively delivered to Russia and adapted for operations during H2 2011. In
Q1 2012, C.A.T. oil had three new rigs in operations. Following the business set
up, which led to ramp-up costs in 2011, C.A.T. oil expects to fully pick up pace
in the conventional drilling business in the second half of 2012. The new
service is expected to make first contributions to earnings to the current
financial year.
Conventional drilling operations for the latest Gazprom Neft orders focus on the
regions of Orenburg and Yamal-Nenets and are expected to begin in May and June
once the rigs have been mobilized to the well sites.
During the 2012 tender campaign C.A.T. oil has also been able to secure first
orders for 2013. Thus, orders received for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 in all
three service areas amount to a total volume of EUR 323 million.
On April 30, 2012 C.A.T. oil will publish its results for Fiscal Year 2011 and
provide an outlook for Fiscal Year 2012.
www.catoilag.com
Press contact:
FTI Consulting
Carolin Amann
Phone: +49 (0)69 92037-132
Email: carolin.amann@fticonsulting.com
Thomas M. Krammer
Phone: +49 (0)69 92037-183
Email: thomas.krammer@fticonsulting.com
About C.A.T. oil AG:
C.A.T. oil AG is one of the leading providers of oil and gas field services in
Russia and Kazakhstan and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (SDAX).
C.A.T. oil offers a wide spectrum of services to increase the lifecycle of an
oil field or to make unexploited oil fields accessible. The Company´s growth is
driven by the following factors: Existing oil fields need to be stimulated due
to shrinking oil and gas resources in order to optimize capacities.
Simultaneously, idle wells are reactivated or made accessible through new
methods in order to deploy wells to their maximum. Additionally, C.A.T. oil will
establish conventional drilling as third core service which allows to activate
completely unexploited oil and gas sources.
Since its foundation in 1991 in Celle, Germany, C.A.T. oil has built up a
leading hydraulic fracturing services business in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Following its IPO in 2006 the Company has invested more than EUR 250 million in
additional services and capacities: sidetrack drilling has become the Company´s
second core business. In November 2010, the Company introduced a comprehensive
investment program with a volume of EUR 150 million which will mainly be used to
set up conventional drilling as part of the Company´s service portfolio.
Furthermore, C.A.T. oil offers coiled tubing, well work-over, cementing and
seismic services. Due to the recent investments C.A.T. oil´s fleets and rigs are
state-of-the-art and therefore allow for time-efficient and effective
deployment. C.A.T. oil´s customer base includes the leading Russian and Kazakh
oil and gas producers amongst them Gazprom, KazMunaiGaz, LUKOIL, Rosneft and
TNK-BP. C.A.T. oil has a long-standing relationship with these customers and has
been a reliable service provider since its market entrance in the early
nineties.
The Company has its headquarters in Vienna. From January to December 2011, the
Company employed an average of 2,360 people, most of which are based in Russia
and Kazakhstan.
Further inquiry note:
Thomas Krammer
Tel: +49(0)69-92037-183
Email: thomas.krammer@fticonsulting.com
end of announcement euro adhoc
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company: C.A.T. oil AG
Kärtner Ring 11-13
A-A-1010 Wien
phone: +43(0) 1 535 23 20 - 0
FAX: +43(0) 1 535 23 20 - 20
mail: ir@catoilag.com
WWW: http://www.catoilag.com
sector: Oil & Gas - Upstream activities
ISIN: AT0000A00Y78
indexes: SDAX, Classic All Share, Prime All Share
stockmarkets: regulated dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt
language: English
