Pegasus makes investment headway in Iran

Engineering services company Pegasus Oil and Gas Consultants is making headway in Iran with the completion of the laying of a 140 km gas pipeline in the Persian Gulf. The company, an affiliate of Houston-based Pegasus International, completed the engineering design and project management contract in January in Iran’s South Pars gas development field.
Pegasus technical director Aminuddin Mohd Yusoff said Iran now recognises that the Malaysian company is a capable player in the oil and gas industry as well as in other fields. He added that since completing its first project in the South Pars, Pegasus has been sought after for at least two other projects in Iran.

One of the projects is the rehabilitation of a platform in the Resalat oil field, which was damaged during the Iran-Iraq war. Aminuddin said the Resalat field can generate some 100,000 bpd of oil.
"With the Iran-Iraq war over, the Iranians want to revive the platform, which has been practically closed down, and we (Pegasus) have been given the task. "We have been given the contract for design engineering. The contract is worth about $ 5 mm ($ 1 = RM 3.80)," he said.

Aminuddin said the company plans to work with an established Malaysian engineering company to execute the contract in Resalat.
"Our soon-to-be partner has agreed in principle to work with us, but there are some documentations that need to be executed. We hope to able to start work on the contract in a month’s time," he said.
Apart from oil and gas, Aminuddin said the company has also been given the task of erecting 28-inch pipelines, spanning some 9 km, to supply water from Bandar Abbas to Queshm island.
"The pipe is expected to supply some 60,000 litres of water per minute from the mainland to the island population. We are still finalising the cost of the contract to supply water to the island," he said.

Queshm island is Iran’s designated industrial zone. Aminuddin attributed the company’s success in acquiring the two contracts to Pegasus’ ability to execute the South Pars gas field project on schedule. He said Pegasus, along with three other Malaysian companies, completed work on the contract within six months.
"If not for the hiccups on the part of the client, we would have been able to complete the project within four months," he added.

He said the completion of the gas pipeline-laying project in the South Pars has opened up opportunities for Pegasus, especially in recognising Malaysian home-grown technologies. He said the Malaysian engineers have made their mark in pioneering the offshore gas pipeline installation at the South Pars gas field. The project, lead-managed by Pegasus in Kuala Lumpur, also employed the expertise of three other local companies -- HL Engineering, Oilfield Pipeline Inspection and SGS Petrochemical Inspection (Malaysia).
Commissioned by the Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Co for Petropars in Iran, the collaboration of the companies successfully used a revolutionary method of offshore pipeline installation.

Pegasus engineering director and project manager Dr Massoud Baghernejad said the process, called the bottom-towed method, involved welding over 5 km of cladded pipeline joints onshore, towed offshore off the seabed for 140 km using conventional tug boats and later installed between two offshore platforms. The pipeline installation using this method reduced cost by between 40 and 60 % and increased the reliability of pipeline construction significantly, he added.
"Offshore pipeline installation using the bottom-tow method was applied for the first time at the Persian Gulf, and it represented a significant milestone in the development of the oil and gas industry in the region."

Pegasus has been operating in Malaysia since 1997 under the name of Mentor Project Engineering Services.
It assumed its current name when Pegasus International bought over the entire stake in Mentor worldwide in 2001.