Stéphane Leledy, EMEA Marketing Manager, Global Product Manager, Liquid Levels, Dresser Masoneilan says enquires and orders are up, helped by a massive contract win with the Pearl project in Qatar.
“Saudi Arabia of course dominates our valves business in the Middle East, not just because it’s a huge market space, but also on account of the number of projects which are ongoing there.”
Approximately 40% of Dresser Masoneilan global business is done in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and of that, 15% is done directly in the Middle East. A lot of the business is handled through the major contractor offices, which are often in Europe, so it is possible that the orders come through a European order, but can end up in the Middle East too.
“We have seen an impact of the economic slowdown, mainly when projects which had the go-ahead were postponed. Also customers have been under pressure from management to reduce their maintenance costs as much as possible, and that typically means extending the intervals between replacement or servicing for valves.”
“Also, there is a tendency to focus purely on the mandatory or critical situations when people are under this sort of pressure. Clearly the maintenance orders slow down quite a lot, but the good news is no that we are seeing an increase in 2010 with additional requests from customers, and what we have seen in the Middle East is a willingness to re-engage some projects, so that is very encouraging.”
Leledy says both enquiries and orders are up, but order recovery typically starts out quite slowly because final investment decisions in the current climate still take time to get signed off.
“2010 will be a better year than 2009 for sure, but it won’t be like 2007 and 2008, which were remarkable years of activity.”
Dresser Masoneilan is strong in the refining and petrochemical markets, but Leledy notes upstream energy is an important market too. “We supply control and safety valves wherever they are needed throughout the energy value chain. One area of notable success we are very proud of is a project in Qatar. We have recently shipped 600 control valves for the Pearl project in with Shell. We are very proud of that contract of course.”
In order to serve local clients more responsively the company has invested in two major workshops and maintenance centres specifically to serve the Middle East, one of which is in Abu Dhabi, the other in Saudi Arabia.
“In terms of innovation I would say there is a clear trend towards adopting online diagnostics. Our clients are driving this as they migrate more towards preventative maintenance. They want to be more aware of the valve health before any failure, and also move towards a generally safer installation,” explains Leledy.
May Contract Win
Dresser Masoneilan has been named the emergency shutdown device (ESD) supplier for BP’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte oil fields off the coast of Angola, Africa.
Dresser Masoneilan will supply SVI II ESD analog safety demand units for integration into the Yokogawa Pro-Safe-RS safety instrumented system and Yokogawa PRM asset management suite.
“Project engineers wanted a solution that provides continuous diagnostics during a safety trip, enables partial stroke testing of the emergency shutdown valves at regular intervals and withstands the harsh offshore environment,” said Sandro Esposito, global marketing manager for digital products. “The SVI II ESD is the only SIL3 smart ESD that remains live during and after a shutdown, capturing shutdown events as a full-proof test, allowing continuous HART communications during a trip and providing local panel annunciation using the built-in discrete outputs. In addition, partial stroke testing functions are provided on a single wire pair, reducing installation costs, and SIL3-certified stainless steel housing ensures its durability.”
DRESSER IN THE KINGDOM
Dresser Inc expanded its operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the opening of a new valve manufacturing and repair facility in 2009. The newly expanded facility is owned and operated by Darvico (a joint venture between Dresser and the Al Rushaid Group). Darvico has an established record of success in the region, including the recent Khurais project, a major oil and gas production facility for the Saudi Aramco Oil Corporation.
