Turbine Services & Solutions (TS&S)
Abu Dhabi-based Turbine Services & Solutions (TS&S) is an integrated total solutions company for industrial gas turbines and rotating equipment, serving the aerospace, oil and gas, utilities, and petrochemical industries. The company is wholly-owned by Mubadala Development Company, an Abu Dhabi-based investment and development company that supports the growth of the UAE economy. TS&S’ industrial division offers an array of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for gas turbines and driven equipment, in addition to component repair, spare parts supply, leasing, exchange, and sale of engines, modules, and ancillaries. The company’s primary markets are the UAE, the GCC, and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with select services marketed worldwide. Baha Salama, senior vice president – commercial and business development at TS&S, offers his opinions about this year’s awards:
What role do you think the Oil & Gas Middle East and Refining and Petrochemicals Middle East Awards, now in its eighth year, plays in recognising and rewarding the successes of the regional industry?
In 2016, the Middle East was the world’s largest oil-producing region. It also accounted for all of the net growth in global production of oil and crude oil exports in the regional industry. As oil and gas and petrochemicals continue to make innovative discoveries in areas such as engineering operations and production, it is important to have a platform that rewards these advances and recognises the major players in the market while setting international benchmarking standards.
Why do you believe it is so important that success in the energy industry is celebrated regularly?
Awards play a great part in any business, for growth and recognition. They can also raise brand awareness, making companies more visible and giving an organisation an edge over its competitors. Being shortlisted or winning an award serves as testament to a company’s work ethic, dedication, and unique specialty.
Why did you decide to sponsor the awards for the first time this year?
TS&S is a company that works closely with several oil and gas and petrochemicals companies and feels the responsibility to participate in these awards as a pioneering member of the energy industry’s community. Standing out in a changing market is difficult; these awards set a company apart from its competitors and highlight its achievements. We believe that the categories in the O&GME and R&PME Awards reflect innovation, benchmark quality, and recognise exceptional talent in the industry.
It is the aim of the O&GME and R&PME Awards to acknowledge the impressive innovations, hard work, and pioneering practices that can be found in the regional industry, especially when it comes to the all-important areas of operational excellence, health and safety, and corporate social responsibility (CSR), including In-Country Value programmes. What do you think of our efforts to shine a spotlight on aspects of the industrythat are crucial to the very survival of the oil and gas industry? How necessary do you think is it to recognise stakeholders’ performance in these verticals?
It is essential to encourage and promote operational excellence; health, safety and environment (HSE); and CSR across businesses that have created strategic facilities and products to benefit the energy industry to ensure business development, contribute to human capability, and incite productivity. Stakeholder performance in these verticals allows for accountability and growth in areas that can affect business activities and performance management. Recognising key steps that stakeholders are making in areas such as operations, health and safety, and CSR, helps to steer direction and gain industry insight into approach and execution.
The oil and gas industry has experienced some significant challenges in the past couple of years. With companies across the value chain having to cope with new realities, what challenges and opportunities are there likely to be for the sector going forward?
Much of the oil and gas industry has survived an especially tough few years, with weak demand and low prices. The main foreseeable challenge is to maintain a lower operational cost. With challenges that range from the growing threat of renewable energy to market uncertainties, opportunities come from driving creativity to implement new methods, allowing for a competitive edge in the market.
Agility
Kuwait-based logistics major Agility, offers the oil and gas industry a suite of solutions across the supply chain, and has served many of the world’s largest oil and gas companies in some of the globe’s most challenging environments. This has involved specialised logistics expertise, and the company boasts of managing the supply base for the world’s largest natural gas project off the coast of Australia, building supply lines through remote Papua New Guinea, and moving an entire gas compression station to Uzbekistan. Agility’s real estate division has developed dedicated facilities for the oil and gas sector, including a one million square-metre energy park in Iraq. Agility also offers customers remote site services, like construction, facilities management, and catering. Bassel El Dabbagh, the chief executive officer of Agility’s Abu Dhabi division, shares his thoughts on the awards:
As it enters its eighth year, what role do you believe the Oil & Gas Middle East and Refining and Petrochemicals Middle East Awards play when it comes to recognising and rewarding the regional industry’s successes?
These awards are extremely important for companies to showcase their best practices, innovative methods, and operational excellence to their customers in the energy sector. Such awards encourage and motivate people to provide better solutions to customers in a consistent way.
Why do you believe it is so important to celebrate success within the energy industry?
Success in any industry deserves celebration, especially the energy industry, which is undergoing tremendous global changes in the face of falling oil prices, increasing the need to innovate and achieve efficiencies in order to remain profitable. Achieving success in such a critical industry paves the way for achieving better scale and efficiency of operations, and helps to bring down costs, resulting in greater customer satisfaction. Thus, success in the energy industry deserves celebration and recognition.
As a first-time sponsor, what made you decide to get involved with the O&GME and R&PME Awards this year?
The oil and gas industry is one of the most important industries in the world, and especially in the Gulf region, where significant investments are committed to this field. The growth of many economies within the GCC depends on the successful growth of the oil and gas industry. Agility, with its long-term commitment to this field, does a significant amount of business with clients involved in this sector, so it is pertinent for us to focus on this critical industry and to improve our presence. From our experience dealing with past winners, and our knowledge of the oil and gas industry, especially in the UAE and the GCC region, we feel that these awards are genuine indicators of operational excellence, quality, and performance.
This year we have introduced three new categories for the downstream sector: Sour Gas and Sulphur Management of the Year, Logistics Service Provider of the Year, and Water Management Solution of the Year. How important do you believe it is to highlight downstream achievements as well as those of the upstream segment?
For an industry to truly succeed in its entirety, it is not only the core sector that needs to achieve excellence. Its related sectors also need to be dynamic and well developed, and achieve operational excellence, in order to fully reap the benefits of growth in the industry. The organisers of these awards are doing the right thing by focusing on the downstream sector – including the logistics part of the value chain, which is the core business of Agility – as this helps to bring awareness about operational efficiencies to all the players involved in the industry.
