SembCorp opens Batam fabrication yard
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A new offshore engineering fabrication yard on Batam Island was officially opened by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro on Friday.
PT SMOE Indonesia, an offshore engineering division of Singapore-based SembCorp Utilities (SembUtilities), invested Rp 53 billion (US$7 million) for the facility to cater to the upstream supply needs of the oil and gas industry in Indonesia and in the Asia-Pacific region, the company's president commissioner Tang Kin Fei said.
"Indonesia is a very big market for oil and gas. We are here to serve the industry's needs," Tang said in a speech at the launching ceremony.
"Currently, our yard employs about 100 Indonesians and over the next few years, we plan to increase that number up to 1,000, when the yard is fully developed," he said.
Located in the Kabil Industrial Zone on the east coast of Batam, the yard occupies an area of 14.9 hectares comprising a construction area of 120,000 square meters, a workshop area of 6,300 square meters and a 40-meter long load-out quay capable of handling a load-out capacity of 10,000 tons.
The waterfront depth of seven meters will be increased to ten meters during the second phase of development that is scheduled to proceed within the next few years. By then, the yard is expected to cover an area of up to 32 hectares.
Singapore-based SMOE Pte. Ltd. has supplied more than 100 projects in its 30-year history, and its clients include the world's major oil and energy companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, TotalFinaElf, Marathon and Unocal.
The company has recently delivered its first North Sea Platform for Maersk Oil and Gas Denmark as well as an EPCI contract for Devon Energy China for two Drilling/Wellhead and Accommodation Platforms.
SMOE handles the full spectrum of Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPIC) work for the industry. SMOE Indonesia is 90 percent owned by SembUtilities, while the remaining 10 percent is held by Fadel Muhammad, now the Governor of Gorontalo Province.
Meanwhile, Purnomo said he hoped that the new fabrication yard would help attract new investment in the country's upstream oil and gas sector.
He said that more effort must be focused on luring new investment to create more jobs, particularly now that most of the country's key macroeconomic indicators have become stable.