KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 18): Yinson Holdings Bhd announced today that its newest floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, FPSO Helang, has successfully completed performance testing and charter rates commenced on Dec 6.

In a statement today, Yinson said its team achieved timely delivery of first oil production 19 months after signing the contract for delivery of the FSPO facility with client JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (Malaysia) Ltd.

FPSO Helang is operating in Block SK10 offshore Miri, Malaysia, and marks Yinson’s maiden project in Malaysia's offshore oil and gas market.

“The achievement was made possible through the great teamwork between the Yinson team, client and subcontractors,” said Yinson Group Chairman Lim Han Weng.

“This is a special project for us as it marks the very first project in Malaysia for Yinson. We are looking forward to contributing to Malaysia’s energy mix,” he added, thanking JX Nippon and Petronas for the opportunity given.

Yinson Energy chief executive officer Datuk Mohamed Sabri Zain, meanwhile, shared the team achieved Zero Lost Time Injuries throughout the 6.025 million man hours clocked during the conversion and commissioning of FPSO Helang.

“Our operations team, based in Miri, Malaysia, has taken over the day-to-day operations of FPSO Helang and I have every confidence that we will continue to maintain our strong average fleet uptime record across the Group,” he added.

Scott Bendiksen, FPSO Helang project manager noted that excellent teamwork was the key to delivering the project as promised and that the achievement was made possible by the commitment shown by the project team, Yinson management and all its vendors and subcontractors.

Yinson shares closed unchanged at RM6.44 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM6.92 billion. The stock has climbed over 50% in the past year.