How Chris Ong helped Seatrium emerge from a messy merger between two shipyards to become a profitable offshore oil and wind giant

Over in Singapore’s Tuas industrial district, workers are assembling a giant floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit, part of the infrastructure that separates crude oil from what’s pulled up from offshore reservoirs. Next to it is a giant Goliath crane, which can lift up to 30,000 tons in a single heave; a gleaming white Royal Caribbean cruise ship sits just a few docks away.

This particular FPSO vessel, built by Singapore’s Seatrium, No. 42 on the Fortune Southeast Asia 500, will soon be bound for Brazil and its state-owned oil giant, Petrobras. It took around three to four years to get the ship completed, a lifetime compared to how quickly most goods get produced.

Seatrium’s most recent contract with Petrobras, a deal worth approximately 11 billion Singapore dollars ($8.2 billion) for two all-electric FPSOs, was signed back in May 2024, with first delivery expected in 2029. Much has changed since the contract was first signed. Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs rewired global supply chains, and the Iran war, with its closure of the Strait of Hormuz, upended the entire conversation around energy, particularly in Asia, which sources much of its oil and gas through that narrow chokepoint.

Chris Ong, Seatrium’s CEO, sees the Iran conflict sharpening what specialists call the energy trilemma, or the trade-off between energy security, affordable supply, and environmental sustainability. “The situation is now even worse because of the destruction of supply, which is still not fully priced in,” Ong says. “People don’t understand; they have been swung between different stories every day.”

Yet if oil prices stay elevated, Ong thinks that will unlock new offshore projects around the world. “I think a lot of projects would come online if the price per barrel were around $100.”

‘A builder and a businessman’

Seatrium itself is barely three years old, though its DNA stretches back to Singapore’s colonial-era naval docks, later converted by the newly independent government into commercial shipyards. The company itself was formed in 2023 when Sembcorp Marine absorbed its rival, Keppel Offshore and Marine. Sembcorp Marine was contending with COVID-era disruptions and a legal hangover from corruption investigations in Brazil; Keppel, meanwhile, had decided to reinvent itself as an asset manager and was eager to shed its manufacturing business.

As Ong explains it, Singapore couldn’t sustain two shipyards competing for the same scarce land, talent, and capital. “We were competing against each other when there’s bigger competition in China and Korea,” he says. The fight over talent had grown particularly fierce: “We were competing with data centers, other builders, even our own customers.”

A former junior engineer, Ong spent nearly three decades in the industry, rising through both predecessors before taking over the merged group. Ong knew both companies, and so knew how to stitch the two together. “You are no longer red or green,” he recalled telling staff, referring to Keppel’s and Sembcorp’s corporate colors. “You are now electric blue.”

Seatrium posted a 1.9 billion Singapore dollar ($1.5 billion) net loss in 2023, partly because of substantial write-downs on non-core assets and obsolete inventory.

Under Ong, the company has turned itself around. The company reported 11.5 billion Singapore dollars ($9.0 billion) in revenue for 2025, up 24% from the year before. Net profit more than doubled to 324 million Singapore dollars ($254 million). Oil and gas accounted for just over 70% of revenue, offshore wind just under 20%, and repairs and upgrades for clients ranging from the Singapore Navy to Royal Caribbean’s cruise fleet at roughly 7%.

Ong credits a supply chain overhaul he branded “One Seatrium” for the turnaround. Seatrium now operates like a global manufacturer: components are built wherever it makes most sense and then brought together for final integration, usually in Singapore. “That allows us to scale the order book.” Ong explains.

A decades-old relationship with Brazil

Seatrium’s relationship with Brazil reaches back to the 1980s, predating the country’s oil boom. “Fortunately, our predecessors were very farsighted,” Ong says. “They realized that if you weren’t in Brazil, you wouldn’t be part of its growth.”

Still, Seatrium has had a “love-hate relationship” with the country at times, Ong says. “There were a lot of startup and tuition costs when we went in.”

Both of Seatrium’s predecessor companies were ensnared in Operation Car Wash, Brazil’s sweeping anti-corruption investigation that eventually consumed much of the country’s political and business establishment. In July 2025, Seatrium agreed to pay approximately $190 million in fines to Brazilian and Singaporean authorities to settle the case, finally closing the matter.

“There are challenges in every geography you operate in,” Ong says, when asked on the subject. “I reckon that’s behind us.”

He adds the experience drove the compan