Shipbuilders seek fresh orders overseas

Korea’s major shipmakers are striving to secure orders, as several global oil majors are resuming plans to build offshore plants with oil prices bouncing back.

Korea’s leading shipbuilders Hyundai Heavy Industry and Samsung Heavy Industry will participate in bids for British oil giant BP’s Tortue gas project off Senegal and Mauritania, the companies said Thursday. 

The project led by BP is estimated to be worth $5.8 billion. Of the total investment, some $1 billion is forecast to be spent for building a floating production storage and two floating facilities to store liquefied natural gas. BP is expected to decide its preferred bidder in October and ink the contract by September next year.

The bidding for Phu Quoc Petroleum Operating’s Block B gas development also has recently started. Petrovietnam’s subsidiary Phu Quoc Petroleum Operating postponed the project as the global oil price continued to remain low over the past year, but resumed the process of securing major contractors to build the main offshore platform for the project.

Hyundai Heavy and Samsung Heavy Industry have already received tender invitations for the project that is estimated to cost some $1.2 billion, the companies said. The local shipmakers will compete with two other shipyard companies, US-based McDermott International and Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine. The Vietnamese company plans to pick its preferred bidder by the end of the year or early next year.

Global oil major Royal Dutch Shell also resumed its bidding process for Vito project to construct submersible platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo are all competing for an order to construct floating production units for the project worth 1 trillion won ($886 million). Korea‘s three major shipbuilders are also contending for a Johan Castberg project led by Norwegian oil firm Statoil worth about $1.5 billion.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)