SEATRIUM’S offshore jack-up designer Seatrium Offshore Technology has won an international tender from International Maritime Industries, a shipyard in the Middle East and North Africa region, for the supply of equipment and licence for a self-elevating drilling unit.
This marks the start of new-build construction for the shipyard since its opening, and of its “long-term partnership” with the offshore and marine specialist to construct offshore jack-up rigs, the company said on Thursday (Feb 20).
It has also signed a contract with International Maritime Industries to build offshore jackup rigs in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The rig is of the LeTourneau Super 116E Class design, which is customised to suit operation requirements in the Middle East and North Africa region, Seatrium said. It will be outfitted with 343 feet legs, have 1.5 million pounds (680,388 kg) of hook load and will use advanced cyber systems.
Prior to this, Seatrium has designed and been involved in constructing jack-up rigs in the Middle East.
This comes as the company is set to release its financial results for FY2024 on Friday.
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New contracts and partnerships
Seatrium announced several new contracts and partnerships over the past few months.
Earlier in February, it announced that it inked a memorandum of understanding with BP Exploration & Production, a unit of oil and gas (O&G) company BP, to provide works for a floating production unit (FPU) in an oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. The contract is expected to be awarded later this year, subject to BP’s final investment decision.
This followed an earlier contract it won for works on a separate FPU in the gulf under the same BP subsidiary, which it announced in December 2024. William Gu, the executive vice-president of Seatrium’s international energy business unit, said then that the company was looking to establishing a long-term relationship with BP.
It is expecting to sign another contract in the first quarter of 2025 with Japanese construction company Penta-Ocean Construction for engineering works on a heavy lift vessel project, having previously signed a letter of intent.
The company posted a S$24.4 billion net order book for the nine months ended September 2024, with 30 projects under execution till 2031, it said in a business update in November 2024. It said then that it was positive on the offshore and marine industry’s outlook in spite of macroeconomic uncertainties, having achieved “strong order win momentum” in its first half of the year, with a “healthy pipeline” that it intends to convert into firm orders.
This followed its return to the black with a S$36 million net profit for H1 ended June 2024, from a S$264.4 million net loss in the year-ago period, amid new projects and increased repair and upgrade activities.
Seatrium chief executive Chris Ong previously expressed optimism over the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on the business, which has both O&G and renewable energy operations. Upon coming into office, Trump declared a national energy emergency to boost US O&G production, which analysts think could bode well for such activities.
Shares of Seatrium closed on Wednesday 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 lower at S$2.55.
