Datuk Abdul Rahman Lariwoo
KUCHING (Oct 4): Sarawak Petroleum Contractors Association (Speca) has urged the state government to intervene in a recent awarding of tender by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) for offshore works in Sarawak.
Its president Datuk Abdul Rahman Lariwoo said the award of the contract to a peninsula-based company was not according to the Sarawak government’s objective to have more Sarawak companies to participate in its oil and gas (O&G) industry.
“We would request our Sarawak government to intervene. Sarawakian companies will be frustrated despite continuous effort to improve themselves. We need better and fair treatment from Petronas,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Abdul Rahman said the ‘Provision of Alternative Blasting and Painting for Petronas Carigali’ tender involved a contract to provide equipment, manpower and consumable for the alternative blasting works offshore Sarawak.
He pointed out those who participated for the tender bid included a Speca member company and described the scope of the contract as ‘no rocket science’, adding there were many Sarawak companies that could provide this scope.
“Recently this tender was awarded to a company from West Malaysia whom we know doesn’t have a good track record in the market. In fact, this company has long (been) forgotten by the industry,” he said.
As for the Speca member which participated for the tender, Abdul Rahman said it has a proven track record and is to a certain extent more than capable of delivering a quality job and ahead of schedule most of the time, as manifested in their on-going Fabric Maintenance Contract with Sarawak Shell Berhad and Sabah Shell Petroleum Co Ltd.
“In fact, there are many capable Sarawak companies. We don’t want (an outside company) who quoted very low just to win the job and later, outsource some of the scopes to local Sarawak companies at a much lower rates and worse, didn’t pay our Sarawak companies at all,” he said.
On another matter, Abdul Rahman said Speca would like to congratulate Sarawak-based Brooke Dockyard for the recent award from Shell for the Fabrication Works of TIMI Wellhead Platform.
The TIMI field is situated approximately 200km off the coast of Sarawak. Its development features Sarawak Shell Berhad’s first wellhead platform in Malaysia that is powered by a solar and wind hybrid renewable power system.