Barakah teams up with Minsheng to explore opportunities in O&G

Barakah Offshore Petroleum Bhd (Barakah), has entered into a Heads of Agreement with Minsheng Financial Leasing Co Ltd (Minsheng) to form a strategic partnership to explore areas of collaboration in relation to oil and gas (O&G) projects under Minsheng’s portfolio.

With an asset size of over USD 26 billion (equivalent to RM 108 billion) as at end 2017, Minsheng is one of China’s biggest financial leasing companies with a wide portfolio covering various fields such as aircrafts, ships, marine engineering equipment, logistics, energy equipment, energy saving and environmental protection, medical equipment, vehicles and construction machinery, to name a few.

It is China’s leading ship leasing company with more than 330 ships and Asia’s largest corporate aircraft leasing company with nearly 300 aircrafts under its stable.

The duration of the Agreement is for one year effective 6 May 2019, and serves as a strategic framework for a Definitive Agreement, where more detailed terms of the partnership will be determined.

Under the framework of the Agreement, Barakah will provide its engineering expertise and technical know-how, as well as to explore opportunities together with Minsheng’s Offshore Leasing and Ship Chartering Portfolio.

Abdul Rahim Awang, acting group chief executive officer of Barakah said, “This alliance is in line with our aim to enhance the Group’s core business and competitiveness.

“We look forward to working together with Minsheng to deliver our engineering and operational capabilities for its fleet of offshore vessels and other O&G-related projects under its portfolio. This partnership allows us to utilize our competencies and assets while expanding our geographical reach and scope of services.”

Commenting on Barakah’s prospects, Abdul Rahim said Barakah remains focused on consolidating the group while actively bidding for more jobs.

“Currently, the group is formulating a debt restructuring scheme to manage the Group’s debt, of which upon completion, will solidify our financial footing.

“Moving forward, we welcome more strategic tie-ups such as this, to better position ourselves against external headwinds in addition to capturing arising opportunities.”

The project scope covers a wide array of design and project engineering services such as Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) Management Plan, Operations Plan Review, Independent Verification Plan, Commissioning Consultancy, Project Execution Plan and Review, Project Interface Management Procedure as well as Cost Control, among others.