KUALA LUMPUR: Operational systems and supply chain consulting firm Ventura Group has secured a nearly RM30 million contract from Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd to date for the supply of 50 km of offshore line pipe in Sabah through its newly established joint venture with UAE-based Gerab National Enterprise LLC.
Ventura Group founder and group CEO Datuk Ts Meor Tawfik Amirrudin said the ongoing contract is the first project secured by the joint venture, in which Ventura holds a 51% stake and Gerab 49%.
He said the relationship between the two companies began with a memorandum of understanding signed at the SME Venture@ASEAN event in November last year, followed by a series of discussions before the parties finalised the joint venture agreement.
Both Ventura and Gerab will focus on engineering and industrial solutions, with the companies saying the collaboration would combine Ventura’s local presence with Gerab’s global supply-chain capabilities.
“We continued our discussion, meeting, and series of meetings, and finally, we concluded to firm up our JV partnership agreement with our Dubai partner,” Meor told SunBiz in an exclusive interview.
Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir and UAE Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Mubarak Saeed Ahmed Burshaid Al Dhaheri witnessed the signing of the joint venture agreement on Sept 3.
Ventura Group chairman Datuk Seri Khalid Mohamad Jiwa was also present, while the agreement was signed by Meor and Abdullah Khoory, Gerab’s operations director and director of supply chain management.
Meor said Gerab, which is headquartered in Dubai, is seeking to expand into Southeast Asia, with Ventura providing local market presence and industry expertise.
“Together with Gerab, we can open up more market opportunities in Malaysia and the region by leveraging their international supply chain capabilities, product expertise and network, alongside our local market knowledge and established relationships,” he said.
Gerab was established in 1977 and is a supplier and stockist of seamless and welded pipes, fittings, flanges, valves, and related products for the oil and gas, petrochemical, power, civil, and process industries.
The company has supplied projects in more than 60 countries.
The company’s corporate structure places Gerab under Sharafi Holding, with the group operating businesses spanning bulk-material supply and solutions, information technology, energy-saving solutions, manufacturing and other activities.
Meor said Gerab’s international sourcing capabilities and financial capacity would allow Ventura to pursue larger opportunities.
The 50km Sabah offshore line-pipe project is valued at close to RM30 million, according to Meor, who described it as a single purchase order.
The contract is the first disclosed commercial project arising from the Ventura-Gerab relationship.
The JV is expected to pursue opportunities across the oil and gas, energy and related industrial sectors, including potential participation in the Petronas ecosystem as well as public- and private-sector projects.
Gerab’s international sourcing capabilities and portfolio of industrial products will be combined with Ventura’s experience in the supply, maintenance and related services of line pipes and steel products, as well as its understanding of the Malaysian market and its established business relationships.
The companies said the combination would strengthen their ability to respond to industry requirements while opening new commercial opportunities in Malaysia.
For Ventura, the partnership also provides a platform to deepen its participation in the energy supply chain while leveraging Gerab’s regional and international reach.
Meor said Gerab’s financial strength would enable Ventura to take on larger projects.
“Gerab has the capacity in terms of being very financially strong, and then they are a billion-dollar company in Dubai,” he said.
Separately, he said Ventura continues to expand its digital infrastructure-monitoring business, which Meor described as the group’s “bread and butter” business.
Its key technology is distributed fibre optic sensing (DFOS), which uses fibre-optic cables as sensing infrastructure for applications including pipeline monitoring and intrusion detection.
Ventura says its solutions combine DFOS, industrial IoT, artificial intelligence, machine-learning analytics and critical-infrastructure monitoring.
Ventura has an established track record with Petronas Gas.
Its corporate history says Petronas Gas awarded Ventura a five-year contract in 2021 covering more than 2,000km of pipeline encroachment monitoring for the Peninsular Gas Utilisation (PGU) Phase 1.
In 2023, Petronas Gas awarded Ventura a further five-year Phase 2 contract following the success of Phase 1.
Meor said Ventura has so far completed DFOS deployment covering about 300km of the PGU network.
Petronas Gas’ current corporate information puts its overall pipeline network at about 2,600km, with its latest integrated report stating an overall pipeline length of 2,675km.
Meor said this leaves more than 2,000km of gas pipeline that could potentially require deployment of the technology.
“We have completed about 300km. So, there will be more than 2,000km gas pipeline which need to install this digital system technology, distributed fiber optic sensing.”
He said Ventura had identified several critical locations that could be considered for the next phase, although he did not say the remaining network had been awarded to Ventura.
Ventura has also deployed its DFOS technology outside Malaysia, with Meor citing projects involving PetroVietnam, Medco Energi in Sumatra, Petroleum Bangladesh and ExxonMobil in East Java.
Ventura’s technology focus is also expanding to incorporate AI capabilities.
“Based on the current track record and also the market demand, I would say that we will grow fast, particularly with this distributed fibre optic sensing technology with AI embedded,” Meor said.
He added that feedback from customers, including Petronas and Gas Malaysia, during the ongoing Oil & Gas Asia 2026 exhibition had strengthened the group’s confidence in expanding the business.
Ventura’s broader technology strategy includes applications beyond pipelines.
Its founder and CEO had previously described DFOS as applicable to railways, oil and gas pipelines, utilities and telecommunications, reflecting the group’s strategy of applying fibre-enabled monitoring across linear infrastructure.
