Increased oil and gas activity in Saudi Arabia and the UAE is driving a resurgence in the market for new build jackup rigs and refurbishment,says the chief executive officer of oil and gas services group Lamprell

Nigel McCue says the increase in oil prices over the past year also helped the company to a record bid pipeline by the end of February 2012 worth $5.2bn. “The oil price obviously helps enormously, but within the region there has been a focus on a number of large projects, particularly in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, where there is a renewed requirement to increase capacity,” say McCue.

“You can see this through the new build rigs and refurbishments for a lot of these projects coming up this year and next,” he added.

McCue was speaking to MEED in Sharjah at the official naming ceremony of the Seajacks Zaratan, a wind farm installation vessel built by Lamprell for UK-based Seajacks.

Lamprell serves the oil and gas and renewable energy sectors from three primary facilities in the UAE emirates of Sharjah and Dubai. “We see the oil and gas market in the Middle East this year being strong, particularly driven by Saudi Aramco,” McCue says.

In July 2011, Lamprell acquired Dubai-based oil and gas services group Maritime Industrial Services (MIS) for about $336m, which the company is integrating into its existing business.

“We’re currently integrating MIS, which we acquired in July last year,” McCue said. “We don’t have any immediate plans for further acquisitions at this time, but we are really more concentrating on pushing those [existing] businesses and expanding them within the region.”

Lamprell more than doubled its sales in 2011 to $1.15bn, while adjusted operating profits increased by 11 per cent to $90.2m.