Middle East

Not-for-profit oil and gas technology facilitator ITF has announced it is to open a new office in the Middle East.

The organisation hopes that the new Abu Dhabi base, set to open in April, will attract new members and increase awareness of its global technology funding programme.

The office is being set up as part of ITF's international growth strategy that will also see new bases opening in the US, Australia and Asia-Pacific.

Switzerland-based engineering and construction group Foster Wheeler has won a contract to carry out an availability and reliability study on the possible expansion of Abu Dhabi’s Zirku oil processing facilities.

Foster Wheeler was awarded the contract by Abu Dhabi-based oil company Zakum Development Co (Zadco), formed in order to develop the Upper Zakum oil field on behalf of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and other shareholders, namely ExxonMobil and the Japan Oil Development Company.

Oil and gas exploration in Bahrain is set to boom over the next decade; and the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) is positioning itself to help drive this exciting period of development.

In 10 years, Al Suwaidi Equipment and Transport Company Limited has grown from being a basic equipment rental company into a major league player in the equipment services and engineered heavy lift arena for the petrochemical and hydrocarbon markets in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East—and by forming smart alliances, it is now active throughout the region wherever heavy lifting is required.

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, International Petroleum Investment Co., is to take control of Cia. Espanola de Petroleos SA, Spain’s second-largest oil company, by buying out shareholder Total.

The deal, worth €3.97 billion, will see IPIC buy Total’s 48.8 per cent stake and purchase the remaining Cepsa stock at €28 a share. IPIC already holds 47 per cent in the Spanish company.

Rolls-Royce has signed a long-term service contract with Emirates worth £1.4 billion.

Under the terms of the TotalCare agreement, Rolls-Royce technicians will maintain the Trent engines of 70 Airbus aircraft that Emirates is due to acquire over the next few years.

The deal follows Rolls-Royce’s $1.2 billion contract signed in November to service engines on a further 48 Emirates aeroplanes. The number of Emirates aircraft now being serviced under the TotalCare scheme is 128.

Construction work across the Middle East has created a wealth of opportunity for consultancy firms that can deliver diversity in engineering. Ashraf Khalil, vice president and head of the Business Development Division at ECG Engineering Consultants Group, tells Andrew Pelis how the company has grown across a changing landscape for the past 41 years.