6. Emerson
American industrial products and services provider Emerson has consolidated its position in the Middle East and Africa’s oil and gas market over the last three decades, by virtue of its 11 regional offices and 19 service locations. Emerson is working on several projects to entrench itself in the region; its under-construction base in the Dhahran Techno Valley (DTV) for instance. The objective of the $25mn facility, which will be completed in January 2018, is to cater to the oil and gas, mining, and other industries in Saudi Arabia. In terms of its oil and gas portfolio, Emerson has recently launched Plantweb Digital Ecosystem – an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-based offering, that enables process industries achieve ‘operational certainty’.
7. Welltec
Danish oilfield services provider Welltec has bagged the seventh position in our rankings. Among the many notable products and technologies that form its upstream portfolio, the Welltec Annular Barriers (WABs) have proved to be quite successful for the company’s Middle East business. A number of WABs have been in operation in regional oilfields posing complex production issues. In these cases, no cementing technique could resolve the problem, so a WAB was deployed in the open hole in conjunction with cement, with the WABs preventing crossflow between two zones that previously led to cement channelling and failure. Deployment of WABs in operations has been deemed as an economical solution by Welltec’s customers.
8. Honeywell
With regional governments setting ambitious economic objectives, Honeywell has been at the forefront of managing some of these key oil and gas initiatives in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Oman. For instance, Honeywell has signed a deal with Saudi Aramco in order to drive efficiency and productivity in operations. With regards to its portfolio, Honeywell’s Digital Suites for oil and gas is a set of software and services that can help oil and gas producers boost production performance by 3% to 5%, while improving operational safety. The range of six suites are related to Operational Data, Process Safety, Production Surveillance, Equipment Effectiveness, Production Excellence, and Operational Performance.
9. National Oilwell Varco
Moving close to unarguably their biggest regional customer – Saudi Aramco – by setting  up base in Saudi Arabia, is proving to be an effective business strategy for oilfield services companies. National Oilwell Varco (NOV), much like its peers, recently announced it is expanding the operations of its Fiber Glass Systems business unit with a new composite pipe manufacturing facility near Dammam. The facility has established NOV as the kingdom’s first local manufacturer of high-pressure spoolable composite pipes and has enhanced the company’s ability to provide lightweight, corrosion-resistant, and engineered products. Moreover, NOV improved its standing in the regional market after winning a $45mn contract last year from Algeria’s Sonatrach for managing well operations.
10. Penspen
It was perhaps winning a contract last year to serve in a project operated by Emirati oil giant ADNOC, that helped Penspen elevate its stature in the regional market. The UK-based company  signed an agreement with Matrix Construction to provide modification works at the Bab and Asab fields, located west of Abu Dhabi, and operated by ADCO. Penspen was sub-contracted the detailed engineering works by Matrix Construction, the EPC contractor. Executing the FEED work for this project previously had helped Penspen bag this deal. CEO Peter O’Sullivan told O&GME last year that the company, which has worked in Abu Dhabi for about 40 years, was banking on more orders from ADNOC to cement its position in the local oilfield services market.
[Up next: Find out which companies have won rankings 11-15…]
