Technip Energies, a French engineering and services company in the energy sector, announced on Thursday a net quarterly result up 18.3% to 81.4 million euros, despite its exit from a Russian project, and is betting, beyond the buoyant LNG markets, on the acceleration in green hydrogen.
In the first quarter, the company recorded a turnover of 1.399 billion euros, “in line with our expectations, but slightly down compared to the first quarter of 2022” (1.7 billion, editor’s note), notably due to the exit of the Artic LNG2 project in Russia, “partially offset” by LNG (liquefied natural gas) projects in Qatar, explained the financial director, Bruno Vibert, to journalists. Its quarterly net income rose by 18.3% to 81.4 million euros, compared with 68.8 million in the first quarter.
On an adjusted basis, its profit grew 10.3% to 80 million from 72.5 million in the first quarter of 2022, providing “a solid foundation for the achievement of our annual objectives,” commented Arnaud Pieton, CEO of Technip Energies, in a statement. “Thanks to buoyant markets for LNG and a cycle of investments by our customers, we anticipate a significant improvement in future order intake in 2023 and 2024,” added Pieton. Even if the company’s growth drivers include the development of LNG, it says it wants to accelerate the energy transition and focus on green hydrogen, produced from renewable energies as opposed to the dominant hydrogen produced today from fossil fuels.
Hydrogen
Technip Energies and Belgian electrolyser specialist John Cockerill have announced the creation of a joint venture, Rely, which aims to become a “single-source supplier” of “competitive” green hydrogen solutions, according to their joint statement. Based in Belgium, Rely will be 60% owned by Technip Energies and 40% by John Cockerill. The company is aiming for international deployment and a turnover of more than one billion euros by 2030. “We can debate the speed of development of hydrogen, but we can’t debate so much the need for hydrogen (…) to ultimately enable the decarbonization of many industries, and in particular our energy industry and other heavy industries,” said Arnaud Pieton during a conference call. Rely will specialize in integrated solutions for the green hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives markets (Power-to-X).
Power-to-X technologies refer to the conversion of renewable electricity, which is intermittent by nature, into another storable energy carrier (green hydrogen molecule, green ammonia or other sustainable fuels). This market is “nascent” and for it to “take off”, “we need to break down technological and cost barriers (…) It is a question of accelerating innovation and developing integrated solutions to make this molecule profitable in the long term”, stressed Mr. Pieton. “With Rely, we really hope to drive a new dynamic in the green hydrogen market and accelerate the energy transition on a global level in a very important way,” said François Michel, managing director of John Cockerill. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023.
