PARIS (Reuters) – Technip Energies posted a solid profit in 2023 despite its withdrawal from Russia, boosted by a surge in orders for new projects that is expected to continue into 2024 as global demand for new liquefied natural gas installations increases. (LNG) is growing.

“The year (2023) has been extremely good from the point of view of profitability and order intake, as well as the achievement of strategic objectives (…) which allow us to support our current growth and our future growth” , Chief Executive Arnaud Pieton said in a conference call with journalists on Thursday. The engineering and technology company reached an adjusted annual turnover of 6 billion euros, down from 6 .4 billion euros from the previous year. Recurring Ebit increased from 451 million euros to 445 million euros, with a margin of 7.4%.

Orders received amounted to 10.1 billion euros, compared to 3.8 billion euros in 2022, exceeding the 9.8 billion euros reached in 2021.

A significant decline in revenues from Russian LNG projects was seen in 2023 following last year’s withdrawal of the Arctic LNG 2 project and the end of the Yamal LNG contract in 2022.

This decline was still offset by revenues from QatarEnergy’s North Field South and North Field East LNG projects, as well as downstream projects, according to the company’s results.

The company is targeting a turnover of between 6.1 and 6.6 billion euros in 2024, and an adjusted margin (recurring Ebit) of 7 to 7.5%, betting on an increase in global demand for LNG and additional project orders.

“The LNG wave is not over (…) you have probably read like us and heard the announcements made by QatarEnergy last weekend with the commitment to add LNG capacity by 2030, at Qatar in particular, but this trend exists in other geographies as well,” commented Arnaud Pieton.

The CEO added that Technip is currently developing projects that will increase capacity by 50 million tonnes of LNG per year (mtpa). The group has also been selected to develop several LNG projects with a total volume of another 10 mtpa, for which the final investment decision (FID) is expected to be taken this year.

Arnaud Pieton said he expected the global market to increase LNG capacity from 140 mtpa to 160 mtpa in projects expected to be approved between 2024 and 2026, mainly outside the United States, he said. given the pause observed by this country in the granting of new LNG export authorizations.

The company also proposed a 10% increase in the annual dividend and launched a 100 million euro share buyback program.

(Reporting America Hernandez in Paris, with Diana Mandia in Gdansk; Mathias de Rozario; editing by Kate Entringer)

Copyright © 2024 Thomson Reuters