Eversendai plans more liftboats, rigs

By Sharen Kaur
sharen@mediaprima.com.my
Published in NST on July 3, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR: Eversendai Corp Bhd is scaling up its oil and gas (O&G) venture by building more liftboats and jack-up rigs to bolster revenue and profit.

Eversendai Corp executive chairman and group managing director Tan Sri A.K. Nathan said this will lead to a move into the refurbishment and maintenance of O&G assets business and ensure recurring income.

Nathan is upbeat that by 2017, its O&G business will contribute 50 per cent to its income and help it achieve the RM2 billion revenue target. The rest will come from its structural steel and power-plant businesses.

“I want to move towards becoming a good dividend-paying company, which is why I’m building up Eversendai. The market for liftboats and jack-up rigs is huge and it is a global business,” he said recently.

Last month, Eversendai won a RM580 million contract to build two liftboats from Vahana Offshore (S) Pte Ltd, a company wholly-owned by Nathan.

The contract represents the first venture into the offshore O&G market via its wholly-owned unit Eversendai Offshore RMC FZE, which builds, upgrades and refurbishes jack-up rigs and floating production, storage and offloading systems.

Eversendai is also the first Malaysian company to build its own liftboats and jack-up rigs soon.

Local and international O&G companies currently buy these assets from foreign firms in Europe and Asia, including Singapore.

The liftboats will be built at its fabrication yard at RAK Maritime City in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates.

Named Aryan and Arjun, each will have a rectangular hull and four 95m truss-type legs with electric drives and pinion jacks that will allow it to jack up to a depth of 70m. There will also be a 300-tonne crane, accommodation for up to 150 operatives and dynamic positioning systems.

“Eversendai has built all types of complex steel structures since 1980s and in 2000, we moved into mechanical erection work for power plants. When I look at topsides in the O&G sector, I see steel structures and mechanical erection works, thus I know Eversendai can also execute that.

“Based on that, I decided to move into upstream and downstream O&G activities and bid for contracts in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. I have worked tirelessly for the last two years to build this business segment and expand the company,” Nathan said.

Of the two liftboats, he said the hull and jackup legs are made of steel, and Eversendai has the expertise and capability to execute that based on tolerance.

“What we need is the propel, control and jacking systems. This is a specialised area and we are contracting that out to specialist companies,” he added.