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Together their focus will be on building out HFI’s platform and connections for future client opportunities in the region. Their extensive knowledge of the market will be supplemented by HFI senior legal consultant Malcolm Kelly who previously led the Weir Group’s legal operations for the Middle East, China and India.

HFI attended the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW 2017) in October last year at which the International Energy Agency presented its South East Asia Energy Outlook 2017. IEA has pointed to the five key regional drivers for energy demand growth in the period up to 2040. Three of them are in the Asia Pacific region – India, China and the ASEAN countries – with the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa completing the set, as demand in the USA, Europe and Japan peaks and tails off.

HFI also attended the Energy Industries Council Indonesia Opportunities day event in Jakarta in November and EIC’s Datastream Project database is currently recording almost US$2 trillion of current or planned energy projects in the Asia Pacific region. Closer analysis highlights that almost US$1.7 trillion is represented by China (US$539bn), the ASEAN “Big 5” of Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand (US$440bn combined and with Indonesia representing US$185bn), India (US$411bn), Australia (US$191bn) and Pakistan (US$112bn).

Andy explained: “In order to meet its future needs, the IEA makes it clear that ASEAN must fully embrace the energy transition towards gas, renewables and energy efficiency and reduce its reliance on coal and oil. In addition, over the course of the next seven years, there will be a need to decommission over 250 rigs that are coming to the end of their lives.

“The potential that exists within this market is, quite simply, enormous. The governments of these nations need the expertise, knowledge and technology that already exists in order to harness energy for future use, so this region should be on the radar of energy companies that want to expand their business into new geographic markets.

“ASEAN countries are at the forefront of global emerging markets, with the relative low cost of production one of the key attractions compared to developed markets. The market needs two elements to cater to two different segments of developed and developing countries. The developing countries need BOT [build-operate-transfer] project operators to come in and kick-off their countless energy infrastructure projects, while the developed countries need established international developers/IOC and EPCIs in the energy industry to transfer their technical know-how to their local content.

“What will give HFI – and therefore our clients – the competitive edge is bringing the correct parties from the West to match the needs in ASEAN, giving ASEAN the complete legal advice and solution to engage the collaboration parties from the West successfully.”

Hugh Fraser, HFI’s managing partner, added: “HFI will continue to have primary focus on the MENA region which will remain the world’s primary energy production and supply engine but increasingly we need to follow and support clients who are also focussing increasingly on the energy demand growth territories.

“This includes the MENA region itself but the IEA is also highlighting India, China and South East Asia to the East and the EIC’s Datastream has confirmed that China, the ASEAN5, India, Australia and Pakistan represents a US$1.7 trillion market potential which HFI and our clients cannot ignore. 

“Andy, Peter and Malcolm and their respective networks represent our first steps in building out HFI’s platform and capabilities in the region and our business bridge linking our Dubai and Singapore hubs.”