Gulf Ocean Trading’s Managing Director, Mohammed Samir Odeh, says the Saudi market is developing at a pace.
The company, part of the Samir Odeh Group, manufactures and sells components – including bearing, mud-pumps and rotary –tables to the oil and gas sector and other industrial sectors, is an excellent barometer of the health of the upstream trade market, and has seen a recent spike in orders from the likes of Saudi Aramco, as well as Kuwait Petroleum and Abu Dhabi’s National Drilling Company.”
Turnover, says Samir Odeh, is up 30% on the year.
“Before major projects are announced we see an increase in our orders,” says Odeh. “So we can see when big rig orders are coming.”
The stability of upstream orders has allowed the company, which has been providing parts to the oil and gas sector since 1968, to take inventory risk off the balance sheet of clients, saving them commercial risk, says Odeh. “We have EUR 15 million of inventory for the industrial market,” Odeh says. “We also provide services to the client, not just products.”
Gulf Ocean Trading helps clients to identify future maintenance and replacement issues using skilled technicians, and Odeh says pro-active maintenance and monitoring sets the company apart in a crowded market.
“If a bearing costs $60,000 a go, it’s an investment for any company,” Odeh explains. “We want to be sure that if it is supposed to last for three years it does so.”
