Rabutec was founded on 21st March 1987 by Major (Rtd) Mat Salleh Mohd Noor, Rajenthiran Narayanan and Annie Lau Wat Kian to become a maintenance engineering company servicing offshore topsides and structures. Rabutec started off by trading maintenance related items. Soon after, we realised that we did not just want to be any trading company, but a company that provides new and cost effective technical solutions as well. Hence, Rabutec was driven to source new products and solutions that could help resolve some of the challenges offshore.

The beginning of our innovation era

Rabutec specifically started by promoting submersible pumps for application at open drain caissons on offshore platforms. Rabutec sourced hardy, robust submersible pumps (Flygt pumps) that were used in construction and industrial sites. We modified the pump to suit open drain caisson applications and promoted the first trial run at an offshore platform. The success of the pumps led us to install the same type of pumps at most offshore platforms in Malaysia.

Next, Rabutec ventured into providing crane & lifting equipment support services. Through our market research, we discovered that often cranes offshore were downgraded due to various issues. Rabutec started by addressing the lifting requirements of platform mounted drilling rigs. These rigs were modular and were transported from platform to platform for well maintenance services. The main challenges in such operations were:

1. Providing suitable cranes that could be easily rigged up and rigged down.
2. Providing cranes that can lift large drilling packages
3. Working in an environment where there are space and lifting restrictions

To do this, we purchased a standard 35 ton API crane and modified it which allowed it to be broken down to smaller pieces that can be transported, rigged up and rigged down easily. Our success of this led us to look into other lifting solutions to other oil and gas platforms, drilling rigs, FPSOs and offshore structures.

From there on, we progressed to refurbish used API and CLASS cranes, with a defined recertification process. Rabutec also secured crane maintenance and operations contracts with various operators to maintain their various offshore lifting equipment. Till date we have refurbished more than 30 offshore cranes ranging from 3 tons to 500 tons. Our special innovative works includes retrofits and upgrades to cranes, including manriding applications.