These half-year figures from oil services group Petrofac (PFC) made for poor reading - although the market was already expecting performance to be weighted towards the second half. What's more, management had good news to report on contract momentum.
Indeed, big-ticket contract wins in Abu Dhabi - including the $500m Satah Al Razboot offshore project - helped drive Petrofac's order backlog up by a fifth to $14.3bn (£9.2bn) in the half. Some $2.7bn of this new business is linked to Petrofac's onshore activities and the group is bidding for additional contracts worth an estimated $10bn during the second half. Moreover, commissioning is in progress on major projects in Abu Dhabi (the Asab oilfield development) and Algeria (El Merk gas processing facility). While the recently announced liberalisation of the Mexican oil and gas market should eventually benefit the group, too - it already has several contracts with PEMEX.