Monday, Sep 14, 2015
Abu Dhabi: The drop in oil prices has not impacted the operations of Weatherford oil field Services company in the region, a top executive said in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
Ahmad Abu Mattar, an Operations Manager of Reservoir Monitoring in Weatherford, said that a lot of projects are still ongoing and the business remains the same.
“We see the same activity. We do not see any slowdown in projects. All local companies in the region are in the same rhythm of expanding operations to optimise production,” said Abu Mattar, speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of a key oil and gas conference organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers in Abu Dhabi.
Oil prices have been dropping since June last year. From $115 per barrel oil prices dropped to less than $50 per barrel due to over production and weak demand.
The UAE on previous occasions has said that it is on course to increasing oil production to 3.5 million barrels per day by 2017 from the present production capacity of about 2.8 million barrels per day.
The US investment bank, Goldman Sachs last week predicted that oil prices could fall to $20 per barrel due to a glut in the market.
“Even if the oil prices are low now, we know that in the span of five years or ten years they will go up again. These are not short term projects. They are five to ten years ongoing development projects,” Abu Mattar said.
Weatherford headquartered in Houston, Texas, is working on a number of projects with the state owned companies like Abu Dhabi Marine Company (Adma), Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (Adco), Saudi Aramco, Petroleum Development Oman and Qatar Petroleum.
In Abu Dhabi, the company has a manufacturing facility and a state of the art training centre.
Meanwhile, financial services firm, Arqaam Capital, said on Monday that the drop in oil prices over the last few months is surely posing some challenges for the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) economies.
“The declining prices have partly sent shockwaves to the GCC equity markets over the last few weeks causing volatility. Equally important, most countries will be running budget and current account deficits,” said Riad Melti, CEO, Arqaam Capital while addressing GCC-Africa Investors Conference in Abu Dhabi.
“However, we don’t expect that this will immediately precipitate GCC policymakers into changing course on fiscal policy, emulating other hydrocarbon producers who have resorted to currency devaluation or significantly cutting spending. Deficits can be comfortably bridged by drawing down large reserves and sovereign wealth funds’ assets or issuing debt.
“While GCC economies are in a strong position compared to other oil producers, fiscal consolidation cannot be indefinitely postponed and the UAE’s recent move to lift fuel subsidies despite its vibrant private sector is a step in the right direction, and we expect that other GCC countries will follow suit in due course.” he added.
By Fareed Rahman Senior Business Reporter
Gulf News 2015. All rights reserved.
