HL Engineering

HL Engineering eyes bigger oil and gas fabrication deals

HL Engineering (M) Sdn Bhd gears up for more jobs from petroleum companies amid high oil prices and the industry's cyclical upturn. An integrated oil and gas services provider, HL Engineering has a proven track record with over RM300 million worth of contracts completed.

From a resident contractor for major fabrication yards in the country that supplied manpower to a number of fabrication yards here, HL Engineering has evolved into an engineering concern that specialises in both upstream and downstream activities of the oil and gas industry.

It is one of the six major fabrication yards, operating at Lumut Industrial Park in Kampung Aceh, Perak and has developed expertise in the manufacture of skid-mounted flow measurement packages for onshore and offshore applications.

Some of the skids it has fabricated and delivered include the Petronas NVD Metering station at Prai, Penang, Gas metering skid for Lundin Platform, Gebeng City Gate Station for Petronas Gas, Jurong NG Onshore Receiving facilities and Angsi/Larut CPP Custody Transfer Metering Skid for Esso/Carigali.

This experience enabled it to handle contracts for the "big boys" like Murphy Sarawak Oil Co Ltd. Executive Chairman Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir said HL Engineering had ably complemented Murphy Oil's exploration requirements

This year Murphy Oil made significant oil and gas discoveries at its deepwater Senangin exploration well offshore Sabah and at the Pertang gas fields offshore Terengganu.

Mokhzani added that HL Engineering wants to move up the value chain to propose engineering solutions that cover design, fabrication and delivery.

Being one of six companies that hold a Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) fabricator's licence, HL Engineering also hopes to be a party to the national oil company's expansion programmes overseas.

Through its involvement with Strarch of Australia, a company specialising in engineering of aircraft hangars, it also hopes to take up jobs totalling US$20 million (US$1 = RM3.80) in Kenya and Qatar.

Mokhzani said HL Engineering hopes to balance the contribution from oil and gas contracts (now 70%) and non-oil and gas work within the next two years. The company has put in bids for various jobs in Sudan, China and Myanmar, and is planning a joint venture in West Asia for both oil and gas as well as non-oil and gas contracts.

HL Engineering recently opened its first overseas office in Khartoum, Sudan, and hopes to capture a slice of the Sudanese market where Petronas has a substantial stake in the oil industry.

The company is also talking to technology partners to take advantage of opportunities in marginal offshore oil and gas fields, Mokhzani added.

Adapted from "Business Times", 30 December, 2004