Kim Heng Offshore Inks Pact with Iran Marine
The Singapore-based offshore services provider Kim Heng Offshore & Marine has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iran Marine Fund (IMF)to provide its technical expertise and financing to Iranian offshore marine and oil & gas projects.
Based on the MOU, which was signed by Mehrdad Mozaffari, the IMF managing director, and Tan Keng Hoe Melvin, the general manager for supply chain management in Kim Heng, on Monday, the Singaporean company agreed to provide a €400 million finance to develop Iran's marine industries in several phases.
The memorandum of understanding entails Kim Heng will support the offshore sector in the following areas: shipbuilding, chartering of KHMO’s fleet and marine facilities, purchasing of offshore vessels, procurement & supply chain management, rig management services; and maintenance & refurbishment of structures, facilities & rigs.
IMF, a state-owned enterprise belonging to the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, has been established to achieve sustainable development and acts as the interface between the government and the private sector through the provision of finance and technology.
Kim Heng believes the strategic partnership offers a good opportunity to widen its global client network and better position the firm to secure projects in Iran and its surrounding areas.
In a related development, Kim Heng said the total value of the projects to be entered into under the strategic partnership shall be up to $455 million (EUR 400 million) over 10 years, which represents only an estimated value of the intended projects under collaboration with IMF.
"The commercial terms and form of financing for each project under the strategic partnership will be negotiated on a project by project basis and documented in definitive agreements. As such, there is no certainty that any of the projects will materialize or that any definitive agreements could be entered into," Kim Heng added.
