| 12 Feb 2009 |
|
Microsoft oil bosses to shift to Dubai
- Text size
Thursday, Feb 12, 2009
Gulf News
Dubai: US software giant MicrosoftMicrosoft
said on Wednesday said it has moved the company's top bosses for the global oil and gas industry business to Dubai in recognition of the city's position as a strategic commercial hub.
"From Dubai, MicrosoftMicrosoft will be centrally located for ready access to our customers in the prevailing and emerging energy centres of the world. Future demand growth will come largely from countries like China, India and the Middle East," Albrecht Ferling, managing director of Worldwide Oil and Gas Industries for Microsoft CorporationMicrosoft Corporation, said in a statement.
Dubai's location midway between Central Europe and East Asia is ideal for business travel to all oil capitals, from Houston to Beijing, he said in a statement speaking from the Cambridge Energy Research Associates' Cera Week 2009, a petroleum industry gathering, in Houston.
Ferling previously handled the company's global industry initiatives from Vienna.
"Our industry is facing unprecedented challenges that demand a truly borderless response," he said.
"And with the power ultimately shifting from consumer to producer in the global energy equation, the Middle East is an important location for MicrosoftMicrosoft and our partners," the MicrosoftMicrosoft official said.
Ferling cited the worldwide economic downturn and credit crisis, along with the resulting industry trends including increasing mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, pricing pressures, continuing cost escalation and the drive for productivity enhancements, as key focus areas for MicrosoftMicrosoft and its global network of software and integration partners.
"We have oil and gas initiatives in more than 70 countries, and every day we see innovations arising from our partner ecosystem that give operators and service providers the tools they need to grapple with today's industry," Ferling said.
He said over the past seven years since MicrosoftMicrosoft created a business dedicated to the oil and gas industry, the company has moved from "residing solely on our customer's desktops to accompanying them deep into field operations".
"As Marathon digitises its oil fields, as Schlumberger launches leading-edge software, and as many other oil and gas companies move forward into the future, MicrosoftMicrosoft and our partners are there with the technology solutions they need to succeed in the vital task of securing the supply for the world's energy demands," he said.
© Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Loading ...
Post a Comment
Community Comments (3)
could this be the mark of MS curtain call, after they professionally fumbled with Vista? and now, they are diversifying into Oil & Gas software to "compete" with Schlumberger, and slowly giving up support and development of new office suites, because free and open source software have finally eaten up the market?
this is an interesting story to follow.
Microsoft decision seems self destructive and suicidal. Shifting to Dubai???
Microsoft has announced that it is downsizing globally to respond to what it sees as a permanently smaller market due to the global recession. It is very significant that Dubai is still a place for expansion. If the world's biggest IT company likes Dubai during bad times then perhaps others will follow. There is a particularly good argument for global financial institutions to relocate here, see this post:
http://arabianmoney.net/2009/02/11/global-banks-eye-dubai-to-cut-costs-and-motivate-staff/
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.