MALAYSIA'S O&G EXPECTS TO BE AWARDED RM10-15 BILLION WORTH JOBS

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's oil and gas service providers
are expected to secure at least RM10 billion-RM15 billion (US$3.12
billion-US$4.68 billion) worth of jobs in the next 18 months, said ECMLibra
Investment Reserach.

It said the oil and gas service industry looked promising and vibrant given
the line-up of jobs ahead which were expected to be completed between 2013 and
2015.

"The jobs are related to enhanced oil recovery projects, deepwater, onshore
downstream and also marginal fields.

"Petronas has already clearly indicated that it was time to step up
investments at home given the declining local production and we believe
redevelopment projects like Tapis will be the first to go ahead," ECMLibra said
in its research note today.

The research house added that the Tapis would likely take off soon followed
by deepwater projects and then the front-end engineering and design jobs..

"That said, we believe the major fabrication jobs for the central processing
platform, topsides, jackets, well head replacement and pipeline replacement will
be out as well soon after," said the research house.

The projects are valued in excess of US$1 billion and Malaysian Marine and
Heavy Engineering Holdings (MMHE) Bhd, Kencana and Sime Engineering should be in
the running as fabricators," it added.

Similar to Tapis, SapuraCrest could be bidding for installation works and
Wah Seong could pitch for coating jobs.

Petra Perdana could also see respite from these fields given their new fleet
of deepwater capable vessels.

"With the line-up of jobs ahead, we see 2011 as vibrant for the industry. We
maintain our overweight stance on the sector with top picks as SapuraCrest, Wah
Seong and Dayang," said ECMLibra.

It added the upcoming listing of MMHE could also be the catalyst for
announcement of new jobs in the industry.
-- BERNAMA