Technip sales up despite caution among oil industry players

French oil services group Technip on Thursday reported soaring sales even though weak petrol prices have forced energy giants to be cautious about future investments.
The engineering group, which provides engineering services to oil and gas giants such as Total, BP or Shell, said sales rose 17.8 percent to 2.82 billion euros.
Net profit slid to 12.3 percent to 131.6 million euros, but Technip said it would maintain its full-year targets, citing its 19.3 billion euro backlog.
The group is expecting 2014 sales of its underwater activity to reach between 4.6 and 4.9 billion euros, and its onshore and offshore business revenues to reach between 5.55 and 5.80 billion euros.
In recent months the group has announced several big contracts linked to underwater pipelines, and also to the shale energy boom in North America.