Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has announced it has been supplied with the first ‘Made in Oman’ electric submersible pump (ESP) system for its oil operations from a newly-opened factory in Sohar.
The $7.5mn Borets Seven Seas & Co LLC facility was officially opened on October 29th, in a ceremony attended by Dr Ali Bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Oman’s Minister of Commerce and Industry.
The facility will assemble and service ESPs – which provide an efficient and reliable artificial-lift method for extracting moderate to high volumes of fluids from wellbores – for use in oil and water wells. Borets Seven Seas contractors will also install, commission, test and maintain the equipment in the field.
The factory was opened on the Sohar Industrial Estate after PDO negotiated a three-year $105mn contract with Borets, a global leader in artificial lift systems engineering, manufacturing, sales and servicing.
Under the terms of the deal, which also has an option for a seven-year extension, Borets was mandated to establish the plant in the Sultanate, so it can provide training and job opportunities for Omanis, as part of PDO’s efforts to develop local skills and promote In-Country Value (ICV) in highly-skilled sectors of the economy.
The official opening of the facility was attended by PDO’s managing director Raoul Restucci, Dr Envarbik Fazelianov, Russian ambassador to the Sultanate, and Borets chief executive officer Lev Stulberg.
“We are delighted that such a leading company as Borets has opened this new facility in Oman which is already producing ESPs for our operations,” Restucci was quoted as saying in a press release.
Borets is planning to extend the facility to cater for the assembly, testing and service of the surface componets of the systems, alongside the current downhole ones.
“We have worked hard to make this happen as factories like this will help create job opportunities, develop local technical capabilities, shorten our supply chains and reduce our costs,” the PDO MD said.
Borets, a company headquartered in Dubai, is using the Sohar port to import ESP parts, and has opened a path for potential co-operation and knowledge transfer with Sultan Qaboos University and other Omani educational and research institutes.
The Sohar assembly plant is the first of three ESP facilities to be opened in Oman following PDO negotiations with its contractors.
“A key enabler for this achievement is PDO’s new ESP contracting strategy which is structured in a way that makes it mandatory for contractors to set up ESP manufacturing facilities in Oman as part of their agreements,” Restucci was quoted as saying in the press release received by arabianoilandgas.com.
“A central plank of our ICV programme is to retain more of the wealth of our industry in Oman and this new factory really is ICV in action.”
