Topaz Energy and Marine has won additional business on the Tengiz oilfield in Kazakhstan, bringing the total new contracts it has won on the project this year to more than US$500 million.
The Dubai-headquartered shipping company, which is a subsidiary owned about 90 per cent by Muscat-listed Renaissance Services (with Standard Chartered owning the remainder), said yesterday that the new business is a $30m technical manager contract for three support vessels, which it shares with partner Blue Water Shipping.
It also substantially increased the estimated value of another Tengiz contract won earlier this year.
Both contracts begin in the second quarter of 2018 and together bring Topaz’s order backlog up to $1.6 billion, the company said.
Earlier this year, Topaz won a contract to commission construction of and manage 15 module-carrying vessels for Tengiz valued at $350m, which it now estimates as worth $500m.
Tengiz, which lies a few kilometres east of Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea coast, is one of the world’s largest supergiant oilfields, with estimated recoverable reserves of up to 9 billion barrels and a surface working area about the size of Paris.
Chevron is the operator with a 50 per cent share and leads a consortium that includes the state oil company, KazMunaiGas, ExxonMobil and Russia’s Lukoil.
Central Asia has been a bright spot for Topaz as business in Africa and the Middle East has stalled. In the first quarter, the company also won an order from BP to manage 14 ships on its Azerbaijan Caspian project.
Renaissance Services shares were down about 3 per cent at 0.23 Omani riyals, but up about 43 per cent from last year.
amcauley@thenational.ae
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