Lange said that 70% of Neptune’s revenue is derived from its involvement with major gas projects on the North West Shelf and Timor Sea, where the decision to develop such fields is generally only made on the back of pre-sold contracts of some 20-30 years duration.Earlier this month, Neptune landed two NEPSYS dry underwater-welding repair projects in the Gulf of Mexico worth about $US10 million (A$15.67 million) and had reported revenue of $45 million for the first quarter of 2008-09 financial year.He told the company’s annual general meeting yesterday that Australian investment in oil and gas was not slowing down, with more than $100 billion worth of petroleum projects under development or in the planning stages.Lange noted that the current weakness in oil prices would be short-lived, saying that hydrocarbons were still the only option to feed the growth of energy demand over the long term, while trillions of dollars would need to be spent over the next two decades to maintain current production levels due to increasing depletion rates at existing fields.“On the strength of that, it is my belief that there will be little negative impact felt in the Australian oil and gas sector in the foreseeable future, and any reduction in drilling and development activity will be short-lived as demand continues to outstrip supply,” Lange said.
