Engineering, procurement and contracting firm Kentz continued to evolve along with the boom, and with senior regional executive, Asia Pacific oil & gas Brian Kelly and the helm the Perth-headquartered Australian arm of the multinational SNC Lavalin is leading a push into the wider Asia Pacific.

Kentz, which was founded in Ireland in 1919, has been making hay since the start of the boom, working on projects such as Darwin LNG, Gorgon LNG and Ichthys LNG, variously providing commissioning and completion work and electrical and instrumentation construction, but even when Kelly arrived Down Under in 2009 it was always with one eye on the next phase.

He said it was pretty obvious the first step was to strengthen its EPC offering, as well as mechanical work.

“We certainly knew a few years ago that the tide would come back down, so we strategised and diversified, in other areas and geographically,” he told Energy News.

“We’ve expanded heavily, and in August 2014 we were purchased by SNC Lavalin, which is based in Montreal, Canada, and they offer mining, metals, oil and gas, power and infrastructure, and so company has integrated SNC offices around the world, to streamline the offerings around the Asia Pacific.”

Locally, Kenta had focused on Australia, with some work for the PNG LNG development in Papua New Guinea, but following the SNC takeover the mandate for local offices is to expand further into the wider region increased.

Kentz has opened an office in Singapore to target modular onshore and offshore oil and gas solutions, and it is examining power, infrastructure and mining solutions with SNC.

“That’s a new capability, and we are diversifying into new businesses. We have a strong oil and gas construction capability, and now we are moving into an even wider EPC space,” Kelly said,

The company recently helped another arm of SNC win a contract in Saudi Arabia on that front, with some of the engineering done in Perth and Singapore.

Kelly said the shift from capex to opex in the Australian space would see Kentz looking for new opportunities in Asia, although it was still chasing operational opportunities in Australia.

“The opportunities are still out there, but the projects won’t be as ‘mega’ as they were before,” he said.

Kelly said Kentz had learned a lot, following its aggressive entry into Australia and PNG, working across a span of mega projects in some challenging geographies, and he said those lessons would help open more doors.

Projects like PNG LNG, a greenfields project or the Queensland CSG fields where there are thousands of wells in the Bowen-Surat fields connected to major pipelines all offer fresh logistical challenges, as did the company’s major contracts for the Gorgon LNG project.

Kentz built the new 4000-bed, cyclone-rated Butler Park accommodation village on Barrow Island, and it has been responsible for the telecommunications and electronics at the site, where no job is simple.

“From a construction point of view we have done some small electrical and installation construction packages, but the main one is that we are doing the mechanical, electrical instrumentation and commissioning for the three trains and utilities,” he said.

That work is expected to take more than a year to complete.

At Darwin it has completed the telecommunications for Ichthys and is working on the E&I and mechanical work on the two trains with UGL and will also undertake some commissioning work.

Kentz is currently employing around 3500-3700 workers, and the aim is to find new opportunities for as many as them as possible.

“My remit is to keep oil and gas, mining, infrastructure and power plates in the air,” Kelly said.

The Perth office was established in 2004, and it is backed up by offices in Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin, Sydney for SNC’s Interfeed business, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore backed by Perth.

Looking ahead, Kelly said Kentz would be keen on helping develop Browse FLNG, any of the planned new trains in PNG and the Stanley gas plant, or anything else that emerges.

“We have a very strong relationship with ExxonMobil, and we have done projects for them in Qatar, Alaska, Sakhalin, and we’d wanted to get involved with PNG LNG and it was a very quick country entry and very successful.

“We were able to become ExxonMobil’s Safety Contractor of the year, which was a great achievement.”

Locally, Kelly believes Australia will bed down the last wave of current LNG developments, and help optimise them, and he says the company aims to be ready if and when they next wave of developments is approved.

Meanwhile, in Asia, he sees plenty of opportunities for growth in the mid-term.

“Over the different sectors and our geographical reach we should be able to bid on most projects, and anyone who has worked on Gorgon or Ichthys, that experience is invaluable.”