South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), having suffered an order drought for drillships and other specialised offshore vessels, is expected to recover once such orders resume, said an analyst.
NH Investment & Securities analyst John Yu noted in a research note that Norwegian oil and gas player Statoil is expected to soon announce the winning bidder for its Sverdrup Topside project (USD800 million).
“Although Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering are all contending for the contract, we view SHI as being the best-positioned bidder to come out on top,” said Yu.
SHI is also known to be negotiating exclusively with Australian gas and oil player Woodside Energy for the Browse FLNG project.
Related news:Analysts talk up Samsung Heavy Industries’ FLNG expertise
Final investment decision for the Browse FLNG was delayed by a year, but Yu believes it will happen in the second quarter of 2016.
SHI could yet benefit from US oil production and exploration company Anadarko’s plan to order two drillships from South Korean shipbuilders, noted Yu.
South Korea’s second biggest shipbuilder clinched USD2.9 billion worth of orders in 2014 and eyes USD15 billion of orders this year, of which USD10 billion is aimed to come from the offshore segment.
The oil shock has dampened expectations of meeting that lofty target – it has clinched just USD2.5 billion of orders year to date.
Yu said, “Although its new orders have been sluggish thus far in 2015, we forecast that SHI will attract USD10 billion worth of new orders by the end of the year, believing that its new order momentum for offshore production facilities and drillships will quicken from the second half of 2015.”
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.