Will O&M sector's long winter end in 2020?

SINGAPORE's sizeable offshore and marine (O&M) sector may not have lived up to the much-hyped recovery that many investors had expected this year following a prolonged slowdown since the oil slump in 2014 but its two major players - Keppel Corp and Sembcorp Marine - did pull their weight in unexpected ways.

There is always next year. So far the signs are good, with the latest news of production curbs by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) currently chaired by Saudi Arabia; fewer barrels in the market next quarter will help to support oil prices, imbuing hopes of a recovery for the offshore sector in 2020.

Looking back, 2019 can be considered the year in which Keppel and SembMarine, the world's two largest rigbuilders, finally made peace with investors after they resolved a chief source of anxiety related to the Brazil corruption scandal that had led to frozen orders worth some US$10 billion.