PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Joint-Stock Co., the country’s biggest listed oilfield services provider, forecasts profit this year may rise 29 percent as rates for drilling rigs increase.

Net income may reach 1.7 trillion dong ($81 million) in 2013 from 1.32 trillion dong last year, Chief Financial Officer Ho Ngoc Yen Phuong said in a phone interview yesterday. Sales are expected to be 13.1 trillion dong, compared with 11.9 trillion dong in 2012.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based company will experience “high growth” this year as contracted day rates for its rigs has risen 15 percent to an average of $155,000 per day, Phuong said. Rig prices are expected to increase further as demand outstrips supply, she said.

PetroVietnam Drilling shares climbed as much as 6.1 percent to 52,500 dong and traded at 51,500 dong, headed for their highest close since May 19, 2011, as of the midday break on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange today. The stock has advanced 37 percent this year, outpacing the 26 percent advance in the benchmark VN Index. (VNINDEX)

The company will start operating two new rigs from the third quarter, bringing its total to nine, Phuong said. PetroVietnam Drilling, partly owned by Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), had earlier this year set a target of 1.36 trillion dong for profit and 11.3 trillion dong for sales.

The oilfield services provider is a unit of Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, known as PetroVietnam.

Source: Bloomberg