Malaysia local energy drive

It said the oil and gas service industry looked promising and vibrant given the line-up of jobs ahead which were expected to be completed between 2013 and 2015.

"The jobs are related to enhanced oil recovery projects, deepwater, onshore downstream and also marginal fields.

"Petronas has already clearly indicated that it was time to step up investments at home given the declining local production and we believe redevelopment projects like Tapis will be the first to go ahead," ECMLibra said in its research note today.

The research house added that the Tapis would likely take off soon followed by deepwater projects and then the front-end engineering and design jobs.

The projects are valued in excess of US$1 billion and Malaysian Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings (MMHE) Bhd, Kencana and Sime Engineering should be in the running as fabricators," it added.

Similar to Tapis, SapuraCrest could be bidding for installation works and Wah Seong could pitch for coating jobs.

Petra Perdana could also see respite from these fields given their new fleet of deepwater capable vessels.

"With the line-up of jobs ahead, we see 2011 as vibrant for the industry. We maintain our overweight stance on the sector with top picks as SapuraCrest, Wah Seong and Dayang," said ECMLibra.

It added the upcoming listing of MMHE could also be the catalyst for announcement of new jobs in the industry.