TAS Offshore looking for more orders from Indonesia

TAS md Lau Nai Hoh said the company was close to sealing deals for three anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels to an existing Indonesian client. He added that TAS had delivered one AHTS vessel each to two Indonesian clients, who had placed the orders in March and October last year. The two vessels were the first to be sold to Indonesia, which is TAS’ traditional key market for the supply of tugboats for the mining and timber industries.

“We are also in advanced negotiations with interested foreign parties for the supply of three similar OSVs,” he said. TAS has also steadily built up a firm footing in UAE, where it has sold more than 20 OSVs. Sales to UAE contributed MYR100.6m ($31.7m), or nearly 40%, to group turnover, while revenue contributions from Indonesia amounted to MYR75.4m and from Singapore sales came up to MYR36.7m.

Lau said the group was currently constructing six more OSVs in an established contract shipyard in China, adding that some of these build-to-stock vessels would be ready for sale by late this year and next year.

“The increase in demand for energy and high-resilient crude oil prices of about $110 per barrel will continue to spur oil majors to maintain, if not increase, the expenditures on (oil) exploration, and particularly, production," said Lau.He expects some of these offshore developments to come from Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar where the oil and gas industry will also be requiring the provision of various OSVs.