Technip-FMC Tie Up Now Jan 2017

French contractor Technip has made “considerable progress" towards its merger with FMC Technologies, passing major regulatory milestones, said Technip chairman and CEO Thierry Pilenko October 27. 

The French and US firms will hold shareholders’ meetings on December 5, enabling their $13bn merger to close in January 2017, earlier than expected. Technip also reported net 3Q 2016 income up 12.4% year on year at €184.3mn; net loss for the nine-months to September was €56.9mn.

Technip said all 78 modules for phase 1 of the Novatek-led Yamal LNG project had “successfully sailed away”, with 75 modules already on site and three now being shipped through the Northern Sea route.

The French firm also began handover of subsea work at the Eni-led TEN oil and gas field off Ghana ahead of schedule. It said the Petronas floating LNG (FLNG) Satu neared ‘ready for start-up’ and that integration and commissioning continued in South Korea on the Shell-owned Prelude FLNG vessel.

Technip’s order intake in 3Q 2016 of €1.5bn ($1.6bn) was slightly down on its year-ago €1.75bn. Its backlog of orders though was much lower at €12.3bn, compared with €17.5bn at end-3Q 2015. Onshore/offshore work remained “quite robust”; in subsea there were “pockets of growing demand.”

Technip’s dispute with Dong is “currently progressing through a series of arbitration proceedings.” Dong in March 2016 terminated a contract with Technip and partner Korean DSME, saying it would seek to avoid taking ownership of the Hejre oil and gas platform. DSME cut steel on it in 2013. The Danish field’s start-up was due in 2016, then 2017, but now looks uncertain.

Amec Foster Wheeler in an update October 27 said that its 2016 and 2017 trading was in line with expectations and that it continues to target £500mn of disposals by June 2017. Amec acquired Foster Wheeler for $3.2bn in 2014.

Mark Smedley