What brings you to AIDPEC this year?
Turbine Services & Solutions is a Mubadala company, 100% owned by Mubadala. The different divisions of the company are run by one management, bringing a lot of synergies, eliminating duplications, and giving us more efficiency.
ADIPEC is very important for oil and gas businesses. It gives us the opportunity to network. Of course, we also showcase our knowledge, our technology, and what we have to offer to our customers. In fact, we have been participating at ADIPEC for almost 10 years now.
What is the difference that you saw happening at ADIPEC over the years?
If I go back many years of course the participants used to be much less. But I have not seen changes in the participation as a result of the low oil prices. I believe that the UAE plays a major role in that. The fact that Abu Dhabi is one of the biggest oil producer attracts many people and a lot of companies around the world are making sure that they are represented at ADIPEC.
What was the impact of the dip in oil prices on your company?
The reduction in oil prices that happened did not only affect us. It affected everyone in the GCC region. As a result, people need to adjust, rethink how they will spend money, and plan their way forward.
This is one area that the UAE has been very clear about, announcing that they need to diversify and reduce the dependency on oil. This has been happening for a while and you could see it in the last few years. The government has been pushing in that direction and they have a very clear vision about the way to go forward. I think that we are very lucky to be a part of Mubadala because it gives us more clarity of the vision.
Do you think the drop in oil prices created new opportunities in the sector?
This is true in the sense that you definitely need to adjust in order to be more efficient, deliver high-standard services, and keep attracting people. Business now has to be done differently.
We did a lot of check and balance in our processes including how we can recheck our processes and improve. We did not have any layoffs but we looked internally to see the areas which we can improve the overall performance.
Do you think the recent merger and acquisition activities will make players in the sector stronger?
It certainly can bring in synergies with is. This was also our case; we looked inwards and sought to create synergies. For example, we are looking to have our businesses run by a single finance or HR office. There are a lot of benefits from this, not just when it comes to cost reduction but also in regards to efficiency. I think this is the right thing to do and right now is the right time to do it.
What are your expectations from 2017?
At the moment, my outlook is very positive and I hope it will continue to be this way because everyone is saying that next year will be much better. If I look at it from the business point of view, everyone has been very careful in 2016 with their expenditure.
However, at the end of the day, we are dealing with machines which have to stop and go for repair. In the sector of oil and gas, compared with our other aviation division for instance, there is more flexibility in how people run their engines and turbines. They have more time to run it but eventually they will have to stop. So I hope in 2017 a lot of these engines will stop to come to our shops.
