Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Lamprell Energy have joined the joint venture developing a proposed shipbuilding and maintenance complex in Saudi Arabia.
On Monday, existing partners National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) and state oil company Saudi Aramco amended their expired memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the complex to include the participation of South Korea’s HHI and UAE-based Lamprell Energy, which is part of London-listed Lamprell plc.
The parties say they will work together to conduct due diligence and assess work streams in order to make a final investment decision and to decide how the project will proceed.
“Through the development of the maritime complex, Saudi Aramco and the participating parties look forward to leveraging their know-how, current and future business needs, to actively pursue such an investment and promote economic development and job creation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and ensuring availability of world-class services to support the growing national and international portfolio,” Saudi Aramco commented in a release today.
Saudi Aramco’s chairman Khalid al-Falih told a conference on Monday the complex was expected to be located on Saudi Arabia’s east coast and could create 500,000 jobs, according to reports from Reuters.
Lamprell specialises in building shallow-water drilling jackup rigs, liftboats, land rigs, and also undertakes rig refurbishment projects. Its yards in the UAE also build offshore and onshore process modules and fixed platforms, according to the company’s website.
