Brunei-Japan Joint Venture for Integrated Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG)

October 26, 2015

Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office pours concrete at the foundation laying ceremony. PHOTO: BAHYIAH BAKIR

BSP JV to boost local employment
on: October 25, 2015
| Hakim Hayat |

A MULTI-MILLION dollar joint venture project between Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd (BSP) and two Japanese steel giants for the provision of the country’s very first Integrated Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) supply and threading plant is expected to increase local employment and enhance Brunei’s capabilities, the Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar said yesterday.

The minister made this remark in his speech during the foundation laying ceremony for the OCTG plant’s construction site in Salambigar Industrial Park yesterday.

Signed in November last year, the 10-year renewable contract between BSP and Japanese firms Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) and Sumitomo Corporation envisages mutual cooperation in a number of areas, including the supply of OCTG to BSP manufactured by NSSMC and the provision of related services, such as the rendering of local threading and supply chain management services in Brunei.

The B$62-million project, built on an approximately 24-acre land leased by the government through the Brunei Economic Development Board’s (BEDB) initiative, began construction in July this year and is slated to be ready by September 2016.

Two joint-venture companies for the project have been incorporated in Brunei – SC Tubular Solutions (B) Sdn Bhd (SCTSB), which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation and also VAM BRN Sdn Bhd, a sub-contracting company for the local threading job.According to the minister, once the plant is set-up, it will create 164 direct employment opportunities, of which at least 70 per cent will be gradually localised. In this respect, he urged close cooperation between the companies and local training institutions to help tailor training programmes that would be aligned with the needs of the company.

“It is in our interest to ensure that we have locals with the required skills ready to undertake the job when the plant goes into operation,” said the minister, while reminding that the project should be seen not only as simply providing employment to locals – but also representing life-long meaningful careers for locals.

On local business development and content, the minister said the project will help boost the energy goods and services scene in Brunei and enhance the quality of our local content. “With the plan for the plant to supply goods regionally, we will be able to encourage others to develop more local goods and services of high quality and standard,” he said.

Another aim of the project is to increase the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Brunei, the minister said.