Primoris digs into pipeline contracts worth $145M, profits drop in Q2

ConDig (07-Aug-18).  Dallas, Texas-based construction and infrastructure company Primoris Services Corp has secured a number of pipeline and underground contracts worth a total of $145 million.

The company’s pipeline division bagged two spreads of a natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline for an unnamed client in Texas. The projects include the construction of over 180 miles of 24” pipeline to transport NGLs from the Permian Basin to the customer’s fractionation and storage complex outside Houston.

The group’s field service division secured three new contracts, including import and export gas pipelines for a unnamed company in Jefferson County, Texas. The second award was for a piping and mechanical expansion project for a large bulk terminal company also in Jefferson County. 

The third contract was for the procurement and construction of a 4.2 mile multiple lay pipeline project for a petrochemical company that runs from its existing facility to the company’s future site in Point Comfort, Texas.

Work for all of the projects is slated to start in the third quarter of this year and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

The contract awards come as the company reported that net income in the second quarter of this year nosedived to $11.7 million from $21.5 million in the same period last year.

The fall was primarily due to substantial completion last year of two large Florida pipeline projects and a petrochemical plant project, partially offset by an increase in expected claim recovery on Belton, Texas area civil projects, according to Primoris.

Revenue, however, rose 2.8% to $648.8 million for the three months ended June 30 from $631.1 million from the year-ago period.

Primoris said the increase was largely driven by incremental revenue from acquisitions of $79.5 million, initial progress on a major pipeline project on the Atlantic coast, higher Louisiana volumes and a West Texas solar electric facility project.

The company restated its estimate for the fiscal year 2018 of net income attributable to Primoris of between $1.50 and $1.70 per fully diluted share.

“With the delay in the start date for our large East Coast pipeline project to the end of the second quarter, our pipeline results were less than we had hoped, but we have started work on the project and are looking to much better results from the segment in the second half of the year.  The second quarter also included strong performance from our power jobs and continued positive results in our natural gas utility work,” said David King, president and chief executive officer of Primoris.

Earlier this month, Primoris Services Corp said that it had secured two utility contracts worth a total of $25 million.

The US construction industry remains robust, with latest figures from Dodge Data & Analytics showing that construction starts jumped up 11% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $896.3 billion.

The increase marked the second double-digit gain in a row, following the 15% hike that was reported for May.

The rise in June follows a 57% surge in nonresidential building, which benefitted from the start of two large manufacturing plant projects and two substantial office building projects.

Residential building rose 4%, while nonbuilding construction (public works and electric utilities) declined 28% in June.