Company's role is expanding in GCC
Thomas Jivung is country manager of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) in Oman and Qatar. He has spent over 12 years in the Middle East. ABB is the Zurich-based leader in power and automation technologies; it is actively engaged in a diversity of activities in the Gulf. The ABB group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs thousands of people. Excerpts from an interview with The Daily Star in Muscat:
The Daily Star: What explains ABB’s sustained success in the Middle East?
Jivung: Our ABB brand rests on three pillars on our strong technology, on our pioneering spirit and on our ability to be part of the communities where we live and work. The mission of ABB and our employees is to create value by providing our utility and industry customers with power and automation technologies that improve performance and lower environmental impact.
Q: What’s ABB’s specific challenge?
A: Our challenging role is to empower the energy industry by supplying the most advanced products and systems available to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity and water.
Q: What’s ABB’s current focus in Oman?
A: The focus of ABB in Oman is to deliver a new national control center in Mawaleh for the power transmission grid to the Housing, Electricity and Water Ministry, which will be finalized in 2004.This project will improve performance and reliability of the power network.
Q: What about ABB’s projects in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries?
A: We are very active in the Gulf. (GCC) economies are growing at a high rate. The oil prices the main driver of the economy and the wealth in the region remain high, and we believe the near future is very positive. The utility projects getting high attention at ABB include the power grid linking the six GCC countries together … Another area of high interest is (rising) demand for water supply and wastewater treatment.
Q: What will the regional grid accomplish?
A: It will help Gulf countries efficiently manage electrical power production. In Oman, for example, a 132KV power grid will connect the power utilities in the country except in Salalah where the Dhofar Power Company operates an independent grid from generation to distribution. The nearly 3,500-kilometer-long power grid links substations in Muscat, Sohar and Sur. The plan is to link the Omani grid to the UAE grid at Al-Buraimi.
Q: What happens once this power grid is in place?
A: Once it is in place, one Gulf country can import or export electricity from the other depending on the peak load timings in each country thus power can be shared. If there is a power failure in one country, electricity generated in another can be utilized by using network controls. ABB’s network management systems will control even unmanned substations in remote desert areas.
Q: What else is ABB offering in the Middle East?
A: ABB’s presence in the industry sector is increasing in the Gulf. The customers are mainly active in the oil and gas sector, like PDO in Oman, and Qatar Petroleum in Qatar, and in petrochemical projects such as Sohar Refinery and Oman Polypropylene in Oman. Process automation and instrumentation, motors and drives, electrical equipments and services related to these are our main portfolio to these customers. For example, Qatar petroleum has selected the process control system from ABB to aid oil exploration. A number of motors and drives have been supplied by us to the industry in both the countries. Another example of ABB’s diverse portfolio is our leading position as manufacturer of robotics system in the manufacturing industry in particular the automotive industry.
Q: What about your role in airport system?
A: ABB is one of the shareholders of Oman Airport management company (OAMC), operating Seeb and Salalah Airport. We have a well proven experience in development of system and equipments for airports. OAMC was established as the operator of the airports at Seeb and Salalah in Oman in January 2002 under a 25-year concession agreement with the Sultanate of Oman.
Q: What about your Qatar activities?
A: In Qatar, another booming economy due to the vast exploration of gas and related downstream industries, there’s an obvious boost being given to sustainable development. Apart from the gas related industries, a number of infrastructure development projects are under way. These include the Asian Games infrastructure, a new airport and the expansion of the power and water sectors. In principle, the business model for Qatar is the same as in Oman and apart from local and international contractors Kahramaa and Qatar Petroleum are our main customers. At present we are bidding for number of big projects in Qatar in both electrical and the oil and gas sector.
V. M. Sathish Special to The Daily Star
© The Daily Star 2004
