A Vietnamese mechanical firm has completed the second part of a US$100 million contract of building an oil and gas platform for export to Brunei.

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The load-out ceremony for the 1,500 ton topside of the Maharaja Lela Jamalulalam 3 (MLJ3) platform was held by its builder, the PTSC Mechanical and Construction Company (PTSC M&C), in the southern Vietnamese coastal province of Ba Ria - Vung Tau on Wednesday.

Load-out is the transfer of a system from a storage facility onto an installation or shipping vessel.

The PTSC M&C, an arm of the state-owned Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), beat many capable contractors from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore to win the $100 million contract with the developer Brunei-based Total E&P Borneo B.V., an affiliate of French oil and gas giant Total.

The Vietnamese firm finished building the 1,200 ton jacket, or base, of the MLJ3 platform in Brunei in March.

PTSC M&C is set to ship the newly built topside to Brunei, where it will be assembled into the jacket to compete the MLJ3, part of the Marahaja Lela South project developed by Total E&P Borneo B.V.

The building of the MLJ3 topside has been done 100 percent by Vietnamese engineers, according to PTSC M&C director Dong Xuan Thang.

“The ability of PTSC M&C to perform as a contractor is proved by its winning the contract and successfully finishing the topside,” Thang said.

“This will pave the way for the development of high-quality oil and gas service and expansion into overseas markets [for the company].”

In November 2014, PTSC M&C delivered the topside, weighing approximately 8,400 tons, of the Heera Redevelopment Process Platform to India's state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.

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