Seatrium wins offshore rig contract from Saudi Aramco-backed International Maritime Industries

RIG designer Seatrium Offshore Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seatrium, has secured a contract from shipyard International Maritime Industries (IMI) to provide equipment, and a licence to build a rig in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Seatrium will provide a rig kit and a licence to use its rig design. The offshore and marine specialist on Thursday (Feb 20) said that the contract underscored its long-term partnership with the Saudi-based IMI to construct offshore rigs. IMI is a joint venture sponsored by state producer and oil giant Saudi Aramco.

Kingdom 3 is the third rig that the two companies will collaborate on. Seatrium provided the rig designs for Kingdom 1 and Kingdom 2, the earlier projects.

The upcoming rig is a self-elevating drilling unit tailored to meet functional requirements in the Middle East and North Africa, Seatrium said, adding that it was involved in the construction of 65 per cent of jack-up rigs operating in the Middle East.

The news comes ahead of the company’s release of its FY2024 financial results on Friday.

New contracts and partnerships

Seatrium has announced several new contracts and partnerships in the past few months.

Earlier in February, it said that it had inked a memorandum of understanding with BP Exploration & Production, a unit of oil-and-gas (O&G) company BP, to provide works for a floating production unit (FPU) in an oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. The contract is expected to be awarded later this year, subject to BP’s final investment decision.

This followed an earlier contract it won for works on a separate FPU in the gulf under the same BP subsidiary, which it announced in December 2024. William Gu, the executive vice-president of Seatrium’s international energy business unit, said then that the company was looking to establish a long-term relationship with BP.

It expects to sign another contract in the first quarter of 2025 with Japanese construction company Penta-Ocean Construction for engineering works on a heavy-lift vessel project, having previously signed a letter of intent.

The company posted a S$24.4 billion net order book for the nine months ended September 2024, with 30 projects under execution till 2031, it said in a business update last November. It said that it was positive on the offshore and marine industry’s outlook in spite of macroeconomic uncertainties, having achieved a “strong order win momentum” in the first half of the year, and a “healthy pipeline” that it intends to convert into firm orders.

This followed its return to the black with a S$36 million net profit for H1 ended June 2024, from a S$264.4 million net loss in the year-ago period, amid new projects and increased repair and upgrade activities.

Seatrium chief executive Chris Ong previously expressed optimism over the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on the business, which has both O&G and renewable energy operations. Upon coming into office, Trump declared a national energy emergency to boost US O&G production, which analysts think could bode well for such activities.

Shares of Seatrium closed 2 per cent or S$0.05 lower at S$2.50 on Thursday.