0 Surge in oil exploration to buoy vessel firm

Listed shipping operator PT Wintermar Offshore Marine (WINS) said that the promised profusion of oil and gas exploration would support the company this year, and potentially aid the company in going beyond its targeted fleet expansion. Pek Swan Layanto, head of corporate planning at WINS, said the aim of the government to increase domestic oil and gas production would spark an increase in exploration, which in turn would boost the offshore marine business. “We are planning to add eight more ships to our fleet this year,” he said. 

“However, seeing the [exploration] growth trend and our positive performance in the first half of the year, we believe that we will surpass our target,” he said. As of January, the company has booked contracts worth US$193 million. The company has prepared capital expenditure of $60 million to acquire the eight ships. This year alone, the company has received two ships — the first an offshore barge measuring 330 feet. The second ship, the WM Natuna, was built by PT WM Offshore at their dockyard in China for a total cost of $20 million. 

WM Offshore is a subsidiary of WINS, which owns a 51 percent stake, with the remaining shares owned by PT Meratus Line. WM Offshore financed 30 percent of the vessel-building expenses and sourced the remaining 70 percent from external loans. The WM Natuna, a platform supply vessel (PSV), is currently docked at the ASL Shipyard in Batam. The ship, with a 3,500 dead weight tons (dwt) capacity, will transport cargo such as mud, pulverized cement, diesel fuel and potable and non-potable water from oil and gas rigs across Bintuni Bay in West Papua. 

WINS is the only domestic company to operate this type of vessel. The company has two other PSVs, the WM Makassar and WM Sulawesi, traversing the Natuna Sea in the Riau Islands and the Makassar Strait, respectively. The company has a fleet of 64 ships in total. Frank Menaro, Meratus Line’s asset director, said that the WM Natuna, equipped with high technology, could overturn the dominance of foreign-owned ships in the offshore marine service business. “The business has been dominated by foreign companies for a very long time, and we only made our entry into the business recently,” he said. He added that the company had collaborated with WINS for the last three years.

source : the jakarta post