A number of completed landmark projects, greater market recognition and a long-standing policy of localization, has strengthened STATS Group’s (STATS) presence in Australia and the wider Asia Pacific hydrocarbon sector.
The pipeline technology specialist has broken new ground with the awards of inaugural projects by major operators and is on a recruitment drive to consolidate existing markets while opening up new opportunities.
STATS Group have a long-established track record in delivering industry leading repair and maintenance solutions to energy operators along with main EPC contractors globally, with proven dual sealing technology at the core of their product and service offering.
New client Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) recently commissioned STATS to deploy its patented BISEP® double block and bleed isolation technology to isolate a 20” pipeline in Western Australia and the company hopes this lays the foundation for winning similar workscopes.
Other BISEP projects in Western Australia included two workscopes for ATCO Gas (double and quad 6” pipeline) and a quad 14” isolation for APA, while building on an existing frame agreement with Santos, a 12” hot tap service on a 42” pipeline was delivered in Queensland.
SureTap, Australia. (Image credit: STATS Group)
STATS are in the process of adding to its field crew to work across Australian projects and will also recruit a sales manager who will focus on supporting clients on the East Coast and in New Zealand.
Gareth Campbell, STATS Regional Manager for Asia Pacific, said: “This has been one of our busiest and most successful periods in terms of project activity and increased turnover in the Asia Pacific market.
“We have taken a long-term view and from our initial market entry in Australia we have continually invested in infrastructure and people, starting out by setting up a base in Perth and expanding east and northwards.
“This policy of having people and equipment on the ground - which is a template in all our international locations - allows us to respond quickly to client demand and it is paying off as the main Australian operators are now engaging on a regular basis.”
38in Spool Recovery, Malaysia. (Image credit: STATS Group)
In Malaysia, STATS has a track record of successful project work dating back to 2011and earlier this year the company signed an exclusive supply arrangement for its products and services with Malaysia’s E&P O&M Services Sdn Bhd (EPOMS).
The strategic agreement covers STATS’ innovative range of pipeline hot tapping, plugging and inline isolation services, including the market leading BISEP and Remote Tecno Plug (RTP) system, and it strengthened an existing relationship with EPOMS which saw STATS complete a workscope in 2022 which included the isolation and reinstatement leak-testing of a 12” shutdown valve on the EPOMS-operated Larut A platform.
Campbell added: “Malaysia is a strategically important market for STATS and following the signing of a new partnership with EPOMS we have started training their personnel to support onsite workscopes in the local market and are supporting knowledge transfer of our product range.”
In another encouraging development, STATS has just completed its first remote subsea isolation in Malaysia, providing a 38” RTP for a pipeline flange repair project which remained in the pipeline for 49 days.
“In addition to the isolation workscope, STATS also supplied a 38" subsea #900 Flange Encapsulation Clamp as part of one of the many repair options following the isolation taking place. Weighing over 20 tonnes, this is the largest subsea repair we have manufactured and following completion of the project it will now be held in storage as an Emergency Pipeline Repair System option for the client,” explained Campbell.
Outside its core Australian and Malaysian markets, STATS’ credentials extends to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia and the decision to appoint Boyke Sembiring as East Asian Sales Manager, based in Jakarta, underlines the company’s determination to extend its presence in this market.
“We’ve just secured our first ever project in Indonesia and will deploy a 14” Remote Tecno Plug (RTP) on behalf of a leading international energy company, which we believe will be the first time a remote isolation technology has been used in Indonesia, so our decision to put personnel in place in Jakarta has been well founded,” said Campbell.
Remote Tecno Plug, Malaysia. (Image credit: STATS Group)
As global oil and gas operators look to support energy transition and net zero carbon emission targets, STATS is in a strong position to help clients repurpose existing assets and piping infrastructure for future use in hydrogen, Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) and other decarbonization projects.
Over the past two decades, STATS Group has played a central role in numerous pipeline interventions, repairs and maintenance projects, giving the company a deep knowledge base of the very infrastructure that, in the future, may be repurposed.
Campbell said: “Like all oil and gas producing regions, APAC’s operators and contractors are looking to the future and exploring ways to meaningfully support energy transition. Our technology, and particularly our isolation tools, are ideally suited to projects which will look to repurpose older or redundant assets, and we are alert to playing a positive role in hydrogen and CCS projects and other innovative schemes which will emerge in the region in the not-too-distant future.”
