What are the main products and services that you supply to the oil and gas industry?
Our direction is to help our customers achieve Top Quartile Performance in their project and subsequent operations. Whether through the supply of Integrated or Stand Alone Control and Safety System via our DeltaV and Ovation platforms, or RTU and SCADA networks, our team is focussed on delivering measurable customer results. Most recently we have been exploring how our PlantWeb Digital Ecosystem and specifically our Reliability products and services can drive OpEx and help our customers exceed their KPI’s in this area. The Industrial Internet of Things is here, and our customers are using it to solve their most challenging problems.
Could you name some of your major clients and scope of work?
We continue to work with the major National Oil Companies across the Middle East and Africa. We are currently executing Mega Projects for Nigeria, Oman, as well as Saudi Arabia. I think the industry has realised that the $50/b oil price is going to be around for a while and have adjusted their budgets to match. We have seen an uptick in the smaller projects in locations like Kuwait and Iraq as the International Oil Companies understand that they also need to continue to invest. That being said, we are seeing an uptick in FEED activity for larger capital projects that will receive FID in 2018. Some players are investing in the future, while others are investing to maintain current production levels. One thing is clear, oil and gas production is the major focus across Middle East and Africa.
Can you talk about a service that is innovative and unique?
This year, Emerson launched the PlantWeb Digital Ecosystem to address the challenge of achieving Top Quartile Operational Excellence. Based on our research, our customers are struggling to leverage their current investments to meet production, energy, and safety goals.
As part of the PlantWeb Digital Ecosystem, Emerson has launched apps to address the “what to do with the data” questions. At the basic level, these PlantWeb Insight ‘apps’ are scalable down to the unit control level whether a fan, pump, or steam trap.
A level up, at the Unit level, we offer the PlantWeb Advisor. In both cases they are easy to install and configure and most importantly, they are mobile. Our customers realised a reduction in their maintenance of cost by half or more through implementation of such predictive diagnostics for their essential assets such as pumps, motors and blowers.
We also have the broadest offering of sensing technology and can provide additional data point as required, cost effectively, to expand the pervasive sensing of the operation. For instance, the capital cost of getting production data from the well heads can be reduced by 20% to 30%, when implemented with Pervasive Sensing technologies. Wireless technology continues to evolve, and is more secure than ever. While the ICT companies talk about the ‘last mile’, at Emerson we talk about the ‘secure first mile’.
How was business in 2016 and what do you see for 2017?
There is no doubt that 2016 was a challenging year for Emerson and that’s the case for most companies within the industry in the Middle East and Africa. Emerson was fortunate enough to have already been working on some large and extended contracts with our customers to carry us over. As I’ve said, I think the oil and gas industry has now adjusted to the new norm of low oil prices and we are seeing increased capital activity across all of our customers. Additionally, the concepts of Top Quartile and Operational Certainty that we are dedicated to are getting a lot of attention and resonating with all of the end users as well.
