Singapore: After Major Refit Program LEWEK CHANCELLOR Gets New Contract

EOC Limited, one of Asia’s leading providers of offshore construction and production services to the oil and gas (O&G) sector, has added to its contract backlog, with a new award for the Lewek Chancellor.

Lewek Chancellor underwent a major refit which started last November and with extended operating capabilities will be providing accommodation support to a field maintenance programme offshore Africa. Under the contract with a French oil major, the Group’s accommodation and construction barge will provide accommodation and support services for an offshore maintenance project in Africa for up to 24 months. The charter, worth approximately US$20 million, covers a primary term of eight months, with subsequent extension options for four months and thereafter, twelve months.

Mr Lim Kwee Keong, EOC’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “The Lewek Chancellor’s latest contract is testament to our growing clientele’s confidence in EOC’s outstanding offshore production and construction support services. It also underscores our unwavering efforts in seeking out new markets such as Africa for growth. This contract also reiterates the Group’s commitment to keeping fleet utilisation high through focused measures that include tailored upgrading programmes for our vessels. Having completed retrofitting works that began in November 2010, the Lewek Chancellor now has enhanced capabilities that will allow it to take on more challenging and sophisticated projects.”

The Group expects the vessel to add to earnings starting from the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year ending August 2011 (4Q FY11). All in all, the Group should experience a boost in earnings in the second half of this fiscal year (2H FY11) as the Lewek EMAS is expected to commence production in the Chim Sao Field, off Vietnam on or about 4Q FY11, while EOC’s other vessels – the Lewek Arunothai, the Lewek Champion and the Lewek Conqueror – will all be utilised substantially during this period.

The Lewek EMAS – the Group’s second floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, which was recently christened at Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard – has already secured a charter from Premier Oil, a leading independent O&G company, to assist in the development of the Chim Sao field. The contract, which is worth up to US$1 billion, was clinched in 2009, and will see the vessel engaged for up to 12 years with all extension options exercised.

EOC’s first FPSO, the Lewek Arunothai, is deployed in the Gulf of Thailand under a US$400 million contract awarded by PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), Thailand’s national oil company. The vessel is currently processing natural gas and exporting it through a trunk line to an onshore facility in Thailand. The charter, which began in 2009, is for up to three years, with an option to extend for another two years. The Lewek Champion, the Group’s heavy-lift accommodation pipelay vessel, is also in the Gulf of Thailand and is scheduled to remain there until August 2011. In a deal worth approximately US$45 million, it is being utilised to lay 70km of pipes and install 11 wellhead platforms for Chevron Offshore (Thailand) Limited, Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, Ltd and Chevron Pattani, Ltd.

EOC’s other accommodation and construction barge, the Lewek Conqueror, is currently in Brunei, providing offshore support to one of the world’s largest oil exploration and production companies. It was chartered out in 2009 on a five-year contract worth up to US$68 million with extension options exercised.

EOC Limited offers offshore construction & floating production services and installation & commissioning work as well as transportation services that support the entire life cycle of offshore oil & gas production. It manages two heavy-lift accommodation crane barges, the Lewek Conqueror and the Lewek Chancellor; a dynamically positioned heavy-lift accommodation pipelay vessel, the Lewek Champion; and a floating production, storage and offloading unit, the Lewek Arunothai. These vessels are utilised in various support activities that last through facility development, production, operations, maintenance and abandonment. The firm operates in Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Middle East, the Philippines and Thailand, and is an associate company of Singapore Exchange-listed Ezra Holdings Limited, the largest owner/operator of an integrated range of offshore support vessels for charter across a broad spectrum of the oil & gas offshore support services supply chain.

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Source: emasoffshore, July 1, 2011;