Malaysian Oil, Gas Service Firms Focus Overseas

Its FPSO operations – its most important revenue generator – have expanded beyond Malaysia to include Nigeria, Vietnam and India. Another FPSO will operate at the Balnaves field in northwest Australia when ready in late 2013, while Bumi Armada’s India’s joint venture firm will lease an FPSO to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited for the Cluster-7 field off India from late 2014. Bumi Armada continues to grow its FPSO business and it was pre-qualified to bid for projects from Petrobras and Eni S.p.A. for projects in Brazil and Angola, respectively.

Meanwhile, Bumi Armada’s T&I division recently won a $178.5 million contract from OOO LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft for engineering, procurement, installation and pre-commissioning (EPIC) work at the Filanovsky and Korchagin fields in Russia’s sector of the Caspian Sea. The firm – which won contracts from Dubai-based Momentum Engineering earlier – is currently bidding for similar projects from Dragon Oil and Petrobras as it hopes to tap new opportunities in Brazil, Congo, Gabon and Saudi Arabia.

Bumi Armada’s push into foreign markets has cut its reliance on Malaysia. Its revenue from local operations fell to 17.7 percent in 2012 compared to 35.2 percent a year ago, CEO Hassan Basma said in the company’s June 18 Annual General Meeting. Revenue from Asia ex-Malaysia rose 14.7 percent in the corresponding period, while Africa and Latin America’s revenue rose marginally by 1.9 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. Foreign markets appeared to have become an integral part of Bumi Armada’s operations since over 80 percent of its revenue is generated there.

Compared to SapuraKencana and Bumi Armada, Dialog – created in 1984 as an integrated technical services provider to the upstream and downstream petroleum sectors – is shoring up its overseas presence more gradually. It has established a presence in Asia, Middle East, Australasia, United Kingdom and United States to tap foreign business opportunities.

This has yielded some results; Dialog’s revenue from international operations grew 37 percent in the financial year (FY) that ended June 30, 2012. Overseas contribution could be further boosted in FY2013 as the Dialog Jubail Supply Base (DJSB) in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia commenced operations in June 2012 – too late to have any impact on its revenue in FY2012. The DJSB facility – which serves as an integrated offshore logistics hub for offshore oil and gas activities in the Arabian Gulf – won its first long-term contract in mid-2012 with Snamprogetti Saudi Arabian Co. Ltd. for the logistics services.

Smaller Firms Gets into the Act

Smaller companies like Daya Offshore Construction Sdn Bhd – a unit of Malaysia-listed Daya Materials Bhd – are also drawn by the luster of foreign markets.  DOC, which offers subsea construction, installation survey as well as inspection, repair and maintenance services, is seeking to expand into markets in the North Sea, West Africa, the Gulf of Mexico and South America, DOC CEO Mark Midgley told Malaysian daily The Star in May.

“We have no preference in bidding for projects … it can be anywhere,” Samrizat, Commercial Manager of Daya Oil & Gas, which DOC is a unit of, told Rigzone in a phone interview.


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