Swiber

I first chanced upon Swiber in Oct 07 but it wasn’t until early this year that I started taking a more serious look at the group. The group is a niche service provider to the offshore oil and gas industry, with a complementary business in the supply of marine support vessels. Basically they assist in oil and gas exploration, laying of pipelines, etc. You can read more on their business model over at their site.

What prompted me to take a more thorough look was when I discovered Swiber’s involvement in Brunei. Brunei has a whole museum on their oil exploration details and its history. They have only discovered and started mining their oil fields in the last 3-4 decades with many oil fields yet to be mined and discovered. A good relationship with ensure Swiber’s continued involvement in their mining and explorations.

Swiber has since managed to clinch many contracts and their order book packed to a record US$477mil is pretty fat now. From their latest result announcement, they have recorded an impressive 184% increase in Q108 earnings and have raised SGD$100mil from our bond market. They have also recently completed an Offshore Installation project for Brunei Shell completed building a new barge that will proceed to carry out its first drilling assignment with NuCoastal.

Looking forward to their 1H08 results releasing on the 13th Aug 08.