Thursday, 17 January 2013

Oil & Gas Sector - Tembikai & Cenang RSC bid to open next month OVERWEIGHT


- The Star reports today that the Tembikai and Cenang marginal field risk-service contract (RSC) will be re-opened for tender next month. The report added that up to two new marginal fields may be included to make the RSC bid more attractive. Prequalified bidders induce Australia-based oil & gas service companies such as Hydra Energy Holdings, Tap Oil Ltd and AWE Ltd. Hydra Energy’s local partner is reported to be Daya Materials, which provides engineering and construction, specialised listing and material-handling services, speciality chemicals and advanced polymers with a market capitalisation of RM250mil.

- Recall that the former front-runner for the Tembikai RSC was the joint-venture between Scomi Group and Australia-based Cue Energy Resources, which eventually stalled. Our recent meeting with Scomi’s management indicated that the group, while is still involved in this bidding via Cue Energy, does not appear optimistic about its chances. In November last year, Cue Energy’s interim chairman and chief executive officer resigned. With Tembikai likely to fall out of the grasp of the Scomi Group-Cue Energy JV, potential bidders with larger balance sheets such as Bumi Armada and SapuraKencana have emerged into the limelight.

- The Tembikai and Cenang RSC was supposed to be awarded late last year after Canada-listed Coastal Energy secured the Kapal, Banang and Meranti (KBM). The Tembikai and Cenang discoveries are located near Talisman Energy-operated Block PM 314 off Peninsular Malaysia. The bidder list for the two fields had included international oilfield services providers Baker Hughes, Haliburton and Petrofac as well as AWE and Hydra Energy. Potential Malaysian players in discussions with these foreign players include SapuraKencana, Dialog, Alam Maritim, Daya Materials and Scomi Oilfield Services.

- Unlike the three earlier RSCs already awarded to SapuraKencana-Petrofac, Dialog-Roc Oil-Petronas Carigali and Coastal Energy, the Tembikai and Cenang marginal field developments would primarily target early gas, not oil production. Recall that foreign players have to involve local companies for at least 30% participating interest in order to secure RSCs in Malaysia. Contractors are reimbursed on operational and capital expenditures on achieving production start-up. The project cost for each RSC is estimated at between US$500mil and US$1bil.

- As mentioned in our past reports, the delays in the award of the RSCs are consistent with the temporary slow-down of the rollout of oil & gas related projects in Malaysia due to technical issues. This includes the Pan-Malaysian tender for hook-up, construction and commissioning (HUCC) works potentially worth RM8bil, in which 3 major contracts have been delayed from end-2012 to end-1Q2013 and mid-2013. But a major fabrication contract that could be officially awarded soon is likely to be the over RM1bil Malikai tension leg platform production facility for the JV between Malaysia Marine & Heavy Engineering Holdings and Technip. In 2H2013, the rollout of the second phase of the North Malay basin gas cluster project, which will involve a large central processing platform at the Bergading field and multiple satellite well-head platforms, should  sustain the re-rating momentum. This will be supported by further newsflows at the RM60bil RAPID project in Pengerang and tank terminal projects in Southern Johor together with massive gas cluster projects off Sabah and Sarawak which are tied in to the expansion of the Bintulu LNG complex in 2015. Hence, we maintain our OVERWEIGHT call on the sector with BUY calls being SapuraKencana Petroleum, Bumi Armada, Dialog Group and Alam Maritim Resources. 

Source: AmeSecurities 

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