SBM Offshore Is Up 104% YTD - Is This the Max?
SBM Offshore (AMS: SBMO) has been one of the best-performing stocks on the Amsterdam exchange in 2026. Starting the year around €17, $SBMO hit an all-time high of €35.56 on March 26 — a gain of over 104% in under three months. The Strait of Hormuz crisis accelerated the move, but the bull thesis for SBMO was already being built well before the first missile flew. The question now is whether the easy money has been made or whether this is still the early innings of a multi-year energy upcycle.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
What Does SBM Offshore Do?
SBM Offshore is a Dutch company headquartered in Schiphol that designs, builds, leases, and operates Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels, better known as FPSOs. These are essentially offshore oil platforms on ships, anchored above deepwater oil fields that cannot be reached by conventional fixed platforms. The company operates a fleet of 15 FPSOs and one semi-submersible unit, primarily on long-term lease contracts with major oil companies and national oil companies across Brazil, Guyana, and beyond. Its business runs through two segments: Lease and Operate, which generates recurring day-rate revenue from its active fleet, and Turnkey, which covers the construction and delivery of new units. With trailing twelve-month revenue of approximately $5.4 billion and an EBITDA margin above 30%, $SBMO is a cash-generative infrastructure business that happens to sit squarely in the path of rising offshore energy demand.
$SBMO Year-to-Date Performance
SBMO entered 2026 trading around €17, already recovering from a 52-week low of €15.31 set in mid-2025. The stock began climbing in January as energy analysts, including Ninepoint Partners’ Eric Nuttall, flagged that the setup for an oil bull market in 2026 was strengthening. Then in late February 2026, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz (through which roughly 20% of global oil flows) sent energy stocks sharply higher across the board. Brent crude surged toward $110–$120 per barrel, and SBMO caught a powerful tailwind as investors rushed into offshore energy names with direct earnings leverage to elevated oil prices. The stock reached its all-time high of €35.56 on March 26. From that January base to that peak, $SBMO delivered over 104% in roughly 85 days. Since the US-Iran ceasefire, the stock has pulled back slightly to around €34, but remains up over 100% YTD and has outperformed the AEX index by a wide margin. The broader Dutch market returned roughly 19% over the same period.
Is There Room to Grow?
The Strait of Hormuz crisis accelerated the $SBMO move, but investors who are betting on a quick reversal once tensions ease may be missing the bigger picture. The underlying investment thesis for SBM Offshore does not depend on geopolitical disruption staying in place. It rests on a structural multi-year upcycle in offshore energy demand. One that Eric Nuttall, Senior Portfolio Manager at Ninepoint Partners and one of North America’s most followed energy fund managers, has been calling for consistently. Nuttall has argued that declining US shale growth, near-exhaustion of OPEC spare capacity, and years of underinvestment in offshore infrastructure are converging to create an oil supply crunch with a multi-year runway. “We remain bullish on the outlook for 2026,” Nuttall said in January. “Whether it’s gas, whether it’s oil, you can pick.” SBM Offshore is a direct beneficiary of that thesis: as deepwater developments in Brazil and Guyana continue to expand, demand for new FPSOs rises, and SBMO’s order book and lease fleet grow with it. The company has already raised its 2025 full-year revenue guidance above $5 billion and launched a new €227 million share repurchase program, signaling confidence in its own cash generation.
