Worley Parsons

In the year 2004, WorleyParsons Ltd was founded through the form of a merger between Australian based company Worley Group Limited and US based company Parsons EC. WorleyParsons is one of the leading global providers of engineering design and project delivery services earning over 8 billion AUD in annual revenue (company360, 2014).

There are 39, 800 people employed with WorleyParsons spread throughout 43 countries and 40% of staff are from the rapidly developing countries. (Wall Street Journal, 2014). WorleyParsons currently holds the most market share within it’s division in Australia at 5.3% (ibis, 2014). WorleyParsons has divided its business actvities into multiple divisions, including:

• Hydrocarbons – services in upstream, mid-stream, downstream sectors. Provide early conceptual studies and include asset management and enhancement programs

• Minerals, metals and chemicals – encompassing alumina, base metals, precious metals, coal, iron ore and chemicals. The service provided revolves around preparing conceptual and feasibility studies, front end engineering designs, project-delivery services and improve services

• Infrastructure – Services in water, environment, transport, ports, and marine terminals, restoration, geosciences, master planning and advanced analysis. Also provide approvals, stakeholder engagements, project delivery, logistics, cost and schedule for customers.

• Capital and Innovation – a relatively new sector which WorleyParsons Ltd plans to introduce sometime in 2014.

Hydrocarbons Sector’s large capital expenditure highlights the promising future of growth where there are new upstream projects entailing oil and gas discoveries. As seen in the 2006 acquisition of Colt for $1.13billion, which represents WorleyParsons activity in the unconventional supplies for oil and gas in their resulting ‘Oil Sands’ Project (WorleyParsons, 2008). This unconventional petroleum deposit project epitomizes the effort of WorleyParsons to world-class corporate social responsibility.

Although the question does rise of whether the success of WorleyParsons is due to business quality or the boom of the resource sector. Both sides can be argued for as there is no doubt that there has been a benefit to WorleyParsons from the cyclical changes as their timing was impeccable. Refer to Figure 1.1 and note the rapid rise in Share Price, soaring from $3.95 in 2004 to almost $50 in 2007. Reasons ranging from the suitable acquisitions by the company to the economic cycle, where a comparison can be drawn to Figure 1.2. The barrel price of oil in 2002 at $60 rising to over $120 by 2008, spiking at record highs. Figure 1.2 identifies the strong correlation between WorleyParsons success and the resource boom’s resulting oil price changes. After the Global Financial Crisis, the synchronization between the two has been lost and may