Brunei seafarers ready for high seas
By Malai Hassan Othman

The batch of local seafarers.

They are now almost ready to take on the big challenge of sailing the high seas to transport multimillion dollar Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes to their customers in Japan.

The batch of 16 local seafarers yesterday successfully completed their 5-day tanker familiarisation training, which is a mandatory modular training to meet the requirements laid down by the International Maritime Organisation's Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeep (STCW 95) for seafarers.

And at anytime now, they would be put on board Brunei-owned specialised vessels, which provide transport for LNG from Brunei to customers in Japan.

"They would be joining earlier batches of local crews who have undergone similar familiarisation training before they were allowed to work on board on the specialised vessels. But this latest batch of local seafarers is quite special in a way that they were the pioneer in getting their training locally," commented Mr Roger Ainsworth, General Manager of Megamas Training Company Sdn. Bhd.

Megamas, a local private training centre carrying high international standard in its operation and training programmes, was commissioned to provide the short training to the batch of 16 local seafarers.

"We are proud of them as they are the first batch to undergo training locally. In the past, we had to send our local seafarers abroad for such training. In another word, the completion of the first ever locally conducted tankers familiarisation training is in a way another milestone in our programme of Bruneisation of the fleet of LNG vessels," Mr Ainsworth pointed out.

He noted that back in 2000, Brunei Shell Tankers went ahead with its programme of Bruneisation of its LNG vessels. A Bruneisation Working Group (BWG) was set up to implement the programme.

Since then over 150 local cadets were recruited, trained and put on board the specialised vessels. Most of the training programmes were then done overseas as Brunei has yet to have the capacity to provide such training locally.

This is apparently seen as an opportunity by Megamas, an internationally recognised Brunei training centre in the field of oil and gas.

"The training we have provided to the batch of 16 cadets meets the international standard and the certificates they received are recognised by many countries," explained Mr. Ainsworth.

However, he said, the achievement could not be made possible without the strong support of the Marine Department, the Jefri Bolkiah Engineering College, Brunei Shell Tankers and Brunei Gas Carriers.

The certificates of completion were presented to the batch of 16 cadets in a simple but meaningful ceremony held at Megamas Training Company's building. On hand to present the certificates was Mr Reidar W. Saugstad, the Deputy Managing Director of Brunei Shell Tankers.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin