These difficulties worried investors, analysts said, and the price of shares in Technip was showing a fall of 1.88 percent to 42.75 euros in mid-day trading.

In the second quarter, net profit rose by 55.0 percent on a 12-month comparison to 51.5 million euros (64.9 million dollars).

Company president and chief executive Daniel Valot said that for the whole of this year, the company was holding to a target for operating profit of at least 340 million euros, even though it was encountering difficulties in its ability to make, build and install facilities for the oil and gas industries.

In the first six months of the year, net profit was 76.8 million euros, an increase of 40.0 percent from the figure of 55.0 million euros in the same period of last year.

Sales in the second quarter rose by 19.0 percent to 1.589 billion euros. Sales in the first six months totalled 3.163 billion euros.

Valot said that investment would rise by about 50.0 percent this year.

Financial charges in the second quarter were 40.0 percent lower than in the same period of 2005.

At brokers Raymond James, analysts commented that the results, although showing an improvement from the first-quarter figures, indicated that profitability remained weak because of high costs and delays on some projects.

Also, the value of orders on the books at the end of the first half was about 25.0 percent less than the equivalent figure last year, they said.

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