Michael Bovey, regional manger, Middle East of Dutch firm Control Seal Valves says further downstream there is a growing need for perfect seal valves, and as long as the region’s hydrocarbon processing, storage and transfer projects keep going ahead, there is a promising market in the region.
Which Middle Eastern countries dominate your revenue stream?
The Middle East is an area that has been growing in importance for us over the last few years. It is hard to say which country has dominated our revenue stream as our products are quite application specific so quite project reliant. This said Saudi Arabia is quite a consistent market for our expanding plug double block and bleed valves which typically are used on fiscal metering systems, in tank farms and jetty loading facilities for liquid hydrocarbons. Iran for our Rising Stem Ball Valve has remained strong with the amount of LNG plants in country. Others that remain high on the list are the U.A.E, Qatar, and Oman.
How important is the Middle East to your company?
The Region is very important for us which is one of the reasons we have an increasing coverage and exposure in the market place. As a company we strongly believe that product service, after sales support and onsite training are an important part of our growth strategy
Was the market impacted much by project slow downs?
We like so many companies that are reliant on the hydrocarbons industry have been through slower times but with the investment generally in our industry we are very positive for the future. Indeed, we are anticipating at least a 50% growth over the previous period.
Could you put this year’s market into context?
2010 from a Middle East perspective we are sure will yield a record year as a final destination for our products. This is being driven by locally based contracts but also by contracts being let through overseas EPC companies
How is the Middle East faring in comparison to other markets?
We perhaps are fortunate as our products fall into a very niche sector where there are less competitors than in the wider valve industry. This said there are of course far less valves of our type bought numerically. So long as there are gas processing plants, liquid hydrocarbon facilities and custody transfer opportunities we remain buoyant. The Middle East has many such opportunities both currently and anticipated for many years to come.
Do you have valves in your inventory which are able to cope H2S rich content?
Yes we do. A very large proportion of our single seated rising stem ball valves are used in gas applications with high concentrations of both carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide.
What key markets are you currently seeing success in?
Without being name specific, we can say that recently we have supplied the critical Molecular Sieve Switching Valves to 2 projects in Syria, a couple in Iran, a significant project in Qatar and are working on several good opportunities in other regions.
With our Double Block and Bleed valves we are currently executing an airport expansion project for the safe handling of Aviation fuel and many fiscal metering projects for the region. The expansion of tank farms and storage facilities is also an important part of our business activities.
Do you have a strategy in place to tackle the market in Iraq?
Control Seal Valves are currently supplying our Double Block and Bleed valves to Iraq into the Basra area and expect this activity to increase. We are currently not bidding to any major EPC companies but feel confident that there will be, in time, great opportunities as the majors start to let contracts and as the rebuilding of existing operations continues in Iraq.
