It’s almost a year to the day since Jim Johnson took over as chief executive of Hunting — and what a propitious time it was to take charge of the FTSE 250 oilfield services group.
This time last year, a barrel of Brent crude was changing hands for about $52.40; yesterday, the price stood at more like $77.
That’s a rise of almost 50 per cent in 12 months, replicated across other benchmark oil contracts, such as West Texas Intermediate. The dramatic increase has been enough to make thousands of drilling and production projects that were put on hold during the downturn seriously economically viable.
This has been an absolute boon for Hunting. The group was founded in 1870 as a shipping business by Charles