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Companies out to discover and develop new mineral, oil or gas deposits or expand existing projects are spending billions. They run the risk that they will not find what they seek, that what they do find will prove uneconomic, or that commodity prices will suffer a downturn.

The companies supplying the miners and oilmen with necessary equipment and services take no such risk. The timing of contract awards can make progress uneven but, provided their customers keep busy, they should make money.

Many of the players in this field are giant multinationals, the likes of Schlumberger, Halliburton, Bechtel and Fluor. Fully-listed oil distribution and pumping services group Hunting has impressed with pre-tax profits ahead 155 per cent to £40.9 million and talk of more to come.

At 379p, up more than threefold since Growth Company Investor’s recommendation two years ago, there should be further to go at Hunting, now valued at £489.4 million. But there is a second tier of specialist companies set on a growth path by the present resources boom.

Dutch-registered Bateman Engineering has prospered since coming to AIM last October and is looking for acquisitions. The company, which doubled interim profits to £3.9 million pre-tax and could exceed £7 million for the full year, has won a half share in a £117 million copper mine contract in Zambia.

Bateman, which recently paid £2.2 million to take full ownership of South African metal processor Atoll and also works on power plants in South Africa and elsewhere, aims to expand its reach into Congo, the former Soviet Union and South Africa. The order book has reached £150 million and the shares, already up 65 per cent to 346p, should continue strongly.

Deals in the air
Australian Jeff Chatfield heads entrepreneurial AIM newcomer Advent Air, which owns a majority of Skywest Airlines, with a monopoly on remote routes across Western Australia. Skywest carries miners, engineers and valuable commodities such as diamonds, and has a charter deal with mining giant Newmont.

Advent, whose recent £725,000 funding at 10p brought in RAB Capital and other investors, has built up an 83 per cent stake in Skywest and wants to buy the rest. Interim pre-tax profits jumped 1,410 per cent to £615,000 on a much more modest 15 per cent revenue increase to £16 million and the shares at a depressed 8.5p have speculative appeal.

Another Australian-based AIM-quoted group, Rheochem, supplies chemicals and engineering services for oil and gas projects and has useful contracts with leading antipodean energy group Santos, its key customer. With interim profits up 197 per cent to £840,000 on revenues 17 per cent ahead at £3.7 million, chief executive Haydn Gardner is pursuing expansion into India and New Zealand. Rheochem’s hitherto poor-performing shares have recently rallied from below 10p to 15p and should go further.

More acquisitions are likely at Aberdeen-based Sovereign Oilfield, which is paying up to £4.75 million for North Sea structural engineering and fabrication services provider OIL Corporate. Sovereign, which joined AIM in September with a £4 million float at 140p, paid £1 million for French tool and drilling specialist Serco.

Founder chairman Peter Felter and chief executive Graham Burgess plan a push into the Middle East and two further acquisitions are imminent. The shares have surged to 235p and should have more mileage left.

Timing tension
By contrast, Global Marine Energy’s shares have fallen from 175p two years ago to 23.5p. After a painful restructuring last year, chairman Peter Wood is upbeat about a £2 million crane order for US subsidiary Patriot Mechanical Handling, a buoyant order book and moves into Korea, Vietnam and China.

The company, which lost £2.6 million last year, will report disappointing figures for the year to March, because of delays in booking orders. Fans say this will swell 2006-07’s order intake and enhance profits next time, making the shares speculative.

Vancouver-based QuestAir Technologies is also in the red, having lost £1 million in its latest quarter. Shell holds 18 per cent of the company, which has a patented process for using hydrogen cheaply to reduce sulphur in oil refining.

Exxon has committed £3 million to support QuestAir’s ‘rapid-cycle pressure swing adsorption’ technology, aimed to slash the sulphur content in diesel with applications for motor fuel and cleaning up refinery waste. QuestAir’s shares have fallen from 2004’s 74.5p float price to 50.5p, although it hopes to achieve profitability ‘in one or two years’. The stock could rally strongly if Exxon agrees a proposed marketing deal.

Among other possible punts, offshore diving equipment specialist Hallin Marine (currently trading at 67.5p) increased interim pre-tax profits 61 per cent to £482,000 and says it worked near capacity for most of last year. Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping at a depressed 112.5p says it has more than £4.4 million cash.