McDermott To Grow Engineering Office In Malaysia

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, April 20 (Bernama) -- McDermott International, which is in the midst of relocating its regional head office from Singapore to Malaysia by June, plans to grow its engineering office in Malaysia. Providing engineering solutions and design oil production facilities, McDermott has a long history in Malaysia and has been present here for over 30 years. "With the presence of many well established engineering companies, we see the opportunity to recruit experienced engineering personnel. "There is of course an on-going market in Malaysia and while the current oil price may have slowed down the industry a bit, we hope to be well positioned when the industry grows again," Vice-President and General Manager for Asia-Pacific Hugh Cuthbertson said in an e-mail interview with Bernama. McDermott's role as a leading engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contractor for the oil and gas industry has placed the company in a position to work closely with customers and leading oil and gas producing companies such as Petronas, Murphy, Exxon, Shell, Conoco. "We provide a complete range of services from early engineering and front end engineering design (FEED) to offshore marine construction, and even decommissioning and removal of offshore facilities," he said. Besides McDermott, other multinational oil services companies, including Technip and Subsea 7, are also relocating to Malaysia from the republic. "The difference is we are now moving our regional headquarters for Asia to Kuala Lumpur. This will allow us to provide a more responsive service to our clients in Malaysia with a much larger presence in the country. "We expect to work closely with clients, have our senior management engage more frequently and provide a more responsive service to their needs," said Cuthbertson. He noted that McDermott's engineering presence in Malaysia would increase significantly and allow it to work closely and efficiently with its clients in developing engineering solutions. "We can also perform full in-house EPCI projects here in Kuala Lumpur," he said. McDermott is very focused on reducing costs and providing clients with a more efficient and cost effective solution. As an offshore construction contractor, it has not set up a factory or manufacturing base in Malaysia. "Our office has just been fully outfitted and we are recruiting heavily. Our main offshore construction asset is already Malaysian-flagged. "Our investment is primarily in the people we employ, developing the skills of personnel and training crew to perform offshore transportation and installation works," he added. -- BERNAMA