Revenue from the US military logistics contract, which peaked at nearly $6 billion in 2008, will fall to between $300 million and $500 million next year, or less than a third of the 2011 level, Chief Financial Officer Sue Carter said.
So KBR’s focus in the near term is on “elephant” projects that include three Australian liquefied natural gas facilities, an LNG plant in Canada, as well as Angolan refining projects.
“Backlog is also going to grow through a strong prospect list, and more to come that we’re not even aware of today,” Carter said at a meeting with analysts in New York.
She did not put any specific figures on the projection, but Chief Executive Bill Utt said he would be disappointed if KBR was not capable of handling a $20 billion backlog of work within five years, up from about $12 billion currently.
The Houston-based company is also trying to break into the growing market for mining work by splitting off its minerals practice from its infrastructure, government and power group into a new unit with its own president.
“The minerals market’s going to be here until well after all of us are gone,” Utt said.
“We don’t have to be the biggest, we just want to have continued growth in that market.”
Larger rival Fluor Corp. has seen a number of large awards from mining companies in the past year, even as work from other sectors has been slow.
