A world-class facility is being planned to provide maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for marine vessels as well as asset decommissioning, materials recovery, and disposal services. Photo credit: iStock/nightman1965.
Brunei Darussalam is building its first integrated marine vessel maintenance and decommissioning yard at Pulau Muara Besar through a public–private partnership. It wants to set up a world-class facility that will provide maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for vessels in the region, as well as asset decommissioning, materials recovery, and disposal services for local customers, such as Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd, initially and then later for the regional market.
The project was launched in 2022. It is being developed in phases and expected to be completed in 2025.
A special purpose vehicle, Anson International Sdn Bhd, was created to establish the integrated yard. The founding investors are Haji Adinin and Sons Sdn Bhd through Qaswa Holding Sdn Bhd; Strategic Development Capital Fund of the Ministry of Finance and Economy; Dongil Shipyard Co Ltd of the Republic of Korea; and CessCon Decom Ltd of the United Kingdom.
Last May, Anson International entered into a project management services contract with Petrofac South East Asia (B) Sdn Bhd for the construction of the integrated yard.
The 11-hectare project is in the northwest of Pulau Muara Besar, an island on Brunei Bay in the Brunei-Muara district, where there is a large petrochemical complex.
The Brunei Darussalam Maritime Cluster was also launched at the same time as the project. It will serve as an anchor facility to catalyze the integrated yard development. It is part of the country’s plans under Wawasan 2035 (Brunei Vision 2035) to develop the non-oil and gas sector.
Potential revenues from annual vessel maintenance and onshore decommissioning are estimated at B$10 million to B$25 million (about $7 million to $18 million) in the short term. The project is also expected to create jobs and business opportunities.
The integrated yard project will incorporate green and environmentally friendly features as well as adopt circular economy principles in its operations. Plans include recycling the majority of recovered residual waste materials into products, installing solar photovoltaic modules, and using recovered steel waste to make solar-powered light pole towers, which are used in remote onshore and offshore sites.
Brunei sees the project as a steppingstone in its plan to become a decommissioning and restoration center of excellence in the region. It wants to attract “foreign specialists in other disciplines of the D&R service value chain, such as engineering design, well plugging and abandonment, and platform removal and transportation.” This is expected to stimulate more investment opportunities and enable knowledge and technology transfers to local micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
Industry observers see a multibillion-dollar market for the decommissioning of end-of-life offshore oil and gas assets in Southeast Asia. It is estimated at more than $30 billion over the next 20 years.