KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia continues to be a key market in the Southeast Asian region, with more bids expected from international oilfield services company Baker Hughes General Electric (BHGE).
BHGE Asia Pacific president Visal Leng said Malaysia is considered its key market in the region despite a moderate growth expected this year.
"We fully aim to drive our fullstream capabilities forward to remain competitive amidst a dynamic oil and gas industry backdrop expected this year.
"We are also pushing our digital capabilities while focusing on the Southeast Asia and China as our key markets in focus with some markets promising a double digit growth.
"We think Malaysia is coping quite well with the oil price downturn with Petroliam Nasiaonl Bhd (Petronas) seen as a trendsetter of the industry and a benchmark to its regional peers," he told reporters ahead in a roundtable session ahead of the Offshore Technology Asia 2018 (OTC2018) conference today.
Asked on the outlook of the industry, Leng said BHGE expects a slow and steady recovery with cost savings remaining the main agenda for many oil and gas companies.
"With our cost saving strategies, we have seen some companies being able to reduce its costs to up to 40 per cent, delivering cost efficiency to its operations.
"We see new technologies offering solutions to cost savings, and giving oil and gas players the insight to evaluate the viability of projects they wish to carry out," he said.
Last week, Baker Hughes and McDermott International said they are partnering to offer integrated offshore energy services in order to better compete with other growing players like Schlumberger and TechnipFMC.
Their first partnership announced is to provide integrated front-end engineering work for British oil major BP's latest West Africa development offshore of Senegal and Mauritania.