Hakim Hayat

As part of its agreement with the Brunei Government, refinery and petrochemical plant Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd successfully integrated about 400 locals into its workforce to meet Bruneianisation targets set by the Ministry of Energy, Manpower and Industry (MEMI).

The numbers are expected to increase to 50 per cent when the plant is fully operational.

Minister of Energy, Manpower and Industry Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mat Suny bin Haji Mohd Hussein visited Hengyi in Pulau Muara Besar as part of a working visit to several industrial sites managed by DARe (Darussalam Enterprise) with Legislative Council (LegCo) members yesterday. The minister said that as part of Hengyi’s commitment, more than 400 locals have been recruited into the company’s operations and to reach 50 per cent, another 400 locals will be needed as the company now employs about 1,600 including expatriate workers.

At a briefing for LegCo members at Hengyi yesterday, an official from the Manpower Policy and Planning Unit of the MEMI shared that in the first phase of the implementation agreement, Hengyi will meet the target of 40 per cent local workforce by the end of 2019 and 48 per cent by 2023 but the company has committed to a new set of targets to surpass the initial targets.

Hengyi has agreed to a new Bruneianisation target of 50 per cent by the end of 2019 and this will increase to 66 per cent by 2023, according to the official.

The LegCo members’ visit to Hengyi provided progress update on the country’s current largest downstream oil and gas project to date and a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) company between the Brunei Government and Zhejiang Hengyi Petrochemical Co Ltd.

The working visit also included Sungai Bera Industrial Site, Sungai Liang Industrial Park (SPARK), and Salambigar Industrial Park and will be followed by a dialogue session today.

In the morning, they visited the Joffren Omar Sdn Bhd and Mahkota Maju Sdn Bhd, two companies wholly Bruneian owned and operated at Sungai Bera Industrial Site.

At Joffren Omar Sdn Bhd, the LegCo members were briefed on the company’s operations. Incorporated in 1982, Joffren Omar Sdn Bhd’s currently employs 90 per cent local workforce.

The delegation visited Mahkota Maju Sdn Bhd that was established in 2004 with the primary objective to provide competence based safety training to the oil and gas industry. The company currently employs 81 staff of which 87 per cent are locals.

The delegation proceeded to SPARK and visited the Advanced Hydrogen Energy Chain Association for Technology Development (AHEAD). Set in a six-hectare site, the company is currently in its construction phase to build a hydrogenation plant to produce liquefied hydrogen from gas supplied by Brunei LNG Sdn Bhd. The liquefied hydrogen gas will be shipped to a dehydrogenation plant in Kawasaki.

The LegCo members also visited SC Tubular Sdn Bhd, an FDI company currently in operation at Salambigar Industrial Park. The joint venture has 92 per cent local workforce. SC Tubular Sdn Bhd is a joint venture between the Japanese Sumitomo Corporation Asia and Oceania Pte Ltd, who owns 75 per cent shares and OMS Oilfield Services Pte Ltd who owns the remaining 25 per cent shares.