Saturday, Jun 27, 2015

Abu Dhabi: A top executive of Al Mansoori oilfield services said that drop in oil prices is posing a challenge but they don’t see their activity getting slowed down.

Ebrahim Al Alawi, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Al Mansoori Petroleum Services in an exclusive interview to Gulf News said there has been a slowdown in the rigs due to lower oil prices but the activity has increased in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Egypt.

“The low price environment is having a domino effect with both oil producing countries and oilfield services companies coming under pressure to reduce costs.”

“In order to stay in business we have to be imaginative in finding ways to cut costs without compromising on quality or having an adverse effect on our employees. We are continuing to grow.”

He said the company has not sacked any employee after oil prices went down last year but took some measures to cut costs, such as postponement in buying new office cars etc.

A prominent oilfield services company based in Abu Dhabi, Al Mansoori has more than 2,000 people working for it. It is active in 27 countries including in Libya, Syria and Iraq.

The company is facing a lot of challenges due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle Eastern countries In Syria, all their oilfield activity has stopped for two years but they still maintain an office and are waiting for the situation to improve.

In Iraq, the security situation has improved but the government does not have enough money to spend on oilfield developments.

“In Iraq security wise it is safe, but the impact on the government’s budget has affected the oil sector and affected our activity.”

The company said they are looking at East Africa for expansion but this year they experienced a downward trend due to a slide in oil prices.

“Oil exploration gets hit when oil prices go down but we are looking at East Africa and we have been active in the last few years.”

Opportunities

Al Mansoori has big contracts with Saudi based Aramco, Abu Dhabi based Adco, Adma, Zadco and Petroleum Development Oman.

It sees opportunities with new companies that have been recently awarded concessions to develop Abu Dhabi onshore oilfields for forty years.

Japanese Inpex bagged 5 per cent stake while South Korea’s GS Energy bagged 3 per cent stake in Abu Dhabi onshore oil concessions. French oil major, Total, was given 10 per cent stake.

“We will continue with Adco [Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations] no matter who the shareholders are. The percentage of the ownership may change but the actual operation will continue as normal.”

The development of gas reserves and the oil producing countries intent to increase output will drive the growth of the company in the coming years, Al Alawi said.

He said the countries in the region are moving away from burning oil to natural gas for power generation and industrialisation.

“The cleaner and economical source is natural gas.”

The other factor that will drive the growth would be the long-term vision of the governments to increase oil production to meet the future demand.

The UAE is set to increase its oil production to 3.5 million barrels per day and Saudi Arabia 12.5 million barrels in the coming years.

“These countries are not looking at today’s oil price but ten to fifteen years down the line and preparing for that. The world will have a major need for oil.”

On the development of the shale energy sector in the region, he said it is not economically viable because of the cost involved.

Al Alawi, who has been with the company for eleven years, said he is happy to be working in Al Mansoori.

“I don’t feel like I am at work. We all feel like we are a family. It’s such a fun environment.”

“We are proud to be an Abu Dhabi company and proud to be an Emirati company. Being an Emirati company has helped us to expand overseas because the UAE has good brand recognition. It puts us at a higher level when we say we are from Emirates.”

By Fareed Rahman Senior Business Reporter

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