Clients in the oil and gas sector are expecting unrealistic reductions in cost due to the economic downturn, according to a major oil and gas contractor.
Sam Mathew, director, global operations, oil, gas and petrochemicals, Mott MacDonald reported: “The general expectations of clients is that there is a downturn so they are expecting a reduction of costs. The expectation is that the real estate market has fallen so the oil and gas market should come down in proportion but that is not the case. So the biggest challenge right now is matching client expectations.”
Despite this, Mott MacDonald has recently announced a number of new projects in the Middle East and Mathew is confident for the future: “If you look at Europe and Africa, it is not growing as you would normally expect to see, that Europe is a more mature market and in Africa you have funding issues. But the market in the Middle East and Asia is growing because of demand. There is a shortage of power, especially in Asia, so there are a lot of energy projects coming up and we are looking to take advantage.”
Last month the firm was awarded a three year general engineering services contract by Occidental of Oman Inc (Oxy). Mathew described the contract as providing “multidisciplinary engineering and design and technical support.”
