Multiconsult ventures into Southeast Asia

Multiconsult is expanding its international profile by establishing a subsidiary in Singapore. Multiconsult Asia will make Multiconsult the first Norwegian consulting engineering company with a permanent base in Southeast Asia.

The subsidiary will be fully operative on March 20, 2013. “Setting up a permanent base in Singapore was no coincidence. We have had a number of major projects in Singapore the past seven years and we see increasing potential for market growth around Southeast Asia, especially within the Oil & Gas and renewable energy sectors,” says Christian Nørgaard Madsen, Managing Director of Multiconsult.

Going underground

Singapore is faced with significant challenges at ground level, but the city is discovering the immense potential of underground surface area. A Norwegian-Singapore consortium consisting of Multiconsult, SINTEF and the local company TriTech has been able to help providing supreme engineering expertise since 2006. The consortium has been deeply involved in the process of discovering the opportunities in underground installations. We can point to the successful completion of the Jurong Rock Cavern as a good example of this. The Jurong Rock Cavern is an enormous storage facility for crude oil and refined products located 130 meters underground. The facilities consist of five rock caverns, a gas processing plant, a water treatment plant, a distribution system and the loading docks.

“We know the importance of having a local presence. We were able to establish a good reputation in the region through the work we have done so far providing world-class expertise and Norwegian-style project management. Our work is really being noticed around Singapore and we want to build further on that,” says Finn Fagervik, Managing Director of Multiconsult Asia.

Offshore

Singapore has many offshore constructions along its coast. The city needs competence in this area but it does not have much expertise of its own.

“We have already been participating in a number of offshore constructions projects in Singapore, but we see unexploited potential for Multiconsult in this area,” Fagervik said.

Not only Singapore

Multiconsult Asia will be responsible for finding and exploiting market opportunities around all of Asia. Many neighbouring countries have shown interest in what Singapore is doing below ground and there are many opportunities in the region where renewable energy is concerned.