Yinson continues to focus on African and Asean regions

JOHOR BARU: Yinson Holdings Bhd will continue its focus on the African and Asean regions as they offer good prospects in the oil and gas (O&G) industry.

Group executive chairman and managing director Lim Han Weng said another region that the company would possibly look at in the near future would be South America.

He said there were still largely untapped oil and gas fields in the three regions, adding that the O&G exploration activities would be more rigorous in search of new energy supplies in the coming years

“It augurs well for us and companies that provide the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units for the petroleum companies for their O&G exploration activities,’’ Han Weng said after the company’s EGM yesterday. FPSO units are floating production centres, which are used to receive and process raw oil from a nearby drilling platform.

The oil is stored in the vessel and thenoffloadedontoatankerorthrough a pipeline.

At the EGM, shareholders approved the disposal of the entire stake in Nautipa AS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yinson Holdings for RM187.39mil. The proceeds from the disposal would be used to reduce bank borrowings within six months and working capital within 24 months.

He expected the FPSO market to continue growing over the next five years at an average of between 10 and 12 new orders annually ranging from small, mid-sized to huge units.

Executive director and group chief executive officer Lim Chern Yuan said that the FPSO market had strong growth potential which the company could capitalise on.

“The beauty of the FPSO market is that it is a niche market and clients (petroleum exploration companies) will only entertain credible players,’’ said Chern Yuan.