Integrated solutions for Oman’s oil and gas sector

Oman

Khalid Al Busaidi, CEO of Heavy Equipment Maintenance and Trading (HEMT), talks to The Energy Year about the company’s key services and innovative sand management technology, as well as its plans for partnership and expansion. A subsidiary of Tasneea Oil and Gas Technology, HEMT provides detail engineering, EPC, manufacturing and maintenance, as well as rental and supplies for the oil and gas sector in Oman and abroad.

As an integrated solutions provider, what are the main services offered by HEMT?
We offer integrated solutions to our clients including but not limited to design, manufacturing and maintenance in terms of fabrication, valve refurbishment, rig maintenance, machine shop and blasting/painting.
The fabrication sector is one of the major revenue-generating verticals of the company, and under it we manufacture various mechanical static equipment packages such as pressure vessels, manifold skids, flare/vent stacks, etc.
The design and manufacturing of our sand management system (SMS) with the “made in Oman” tag was one of our ICV [in-country value] initiatives. Four units which we have manufactured to date are successfully running in the fields.
Regarding the SMS, it is worth mentioning that we have been pioneers, since the first design was done in our company and delivered by our engineers. This showcases our high-quality in-country engineering capabilities. Moreover, our SMS units represent an innovation that has led to significant cost and time optimisation. Previously, the units were all skid-mounted, taking days to move, while now we have come up with an all-in-one truck-mounted unit, with mobilisation taking just a few hours.
We also manufacture process skid packages such as separators, desalters and chemical injection skid packages. We aim to localise the manufacturing of E&I [electrical and instrumentation] packages such as the high-integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS) and metering skids.
Our other teams under rig maintenance, valve refurbishment and machine shop are dedicated to providing retrofits and troubleshooting in order to deliver solutions to the challenges that clients are facing in their operations. We have the required certification and skilled manpower to repair, refurbish and service both onshore and offshore drilling rigs and related equipment. We undertake repairs of all types of valves – ball, float, choke – as well as do calibration of control valves and repair and testing of different types of pumps, engines and transmissions.
We are the only workshop in Oman with six API accreditations, which reflects our dedication to quality, and due to this our clients continue to trust our quality of service.

What does your current client and project portfolio look like?
HEMT has 50-plus active clients and is a turnkey solutions provider, which is very attractive for oil and gas players. Our portfolio is diversified as our client base varies from the upstream and downstream business operators such as PDO, Oxy, OQ, CCED, Shell and others, to EPC contractors such as Exterran/Enerflex, Petrofac and GPS, and to all the drilling contractors such as KCA Deutag and Abraj Energy. For PDO, for instance, we supplied equipment for the Marmul project and for its water treatment plants in Nimr and Rima, while for EPC companies we provided downstream equipment.
In terms of contracts, we have in place a good one with SLB [formerly Schlumberger] to supply SMS units on a rental basis as well as compact well test units, which we have developed in a high-tech way: fully digitalised, all using touch screens and delivering real-time data in cloud services. This means that our clients can monitor either the well test parameters or intensive testing parameters while sitting in their office. We are trying to digitalise all of our activities, from small projects such as manifolds up to complete plant manufacturing.
Speaking of plants, we are also supplying our equipment, fully manufactured in-house, to Halliburton for a liquid mud plant project in Qatar with NOC [North Oil Company] as the end user. The contract was awarded at the beginning of 2022 and the plant is currently under construction. By the end of Q1 2023 we will be commissioning the complete plant.
We are in discussion with Qatargas for the approval of our fabrication shop to extend our services to Qatar so that we can deliver more packages to the market to multiple end users and contractors.
Then, we have a USD 35-million contract with OQ spanning five years for manufacturing and supply of wellhead equipment, thanks to which we have a 10% market share in this segment. The market is still dominated by big players like FMC and Cameron, but we are trying to expand, taking advantage of our unique compact wellhead system. We are one of the few companies in Oman that provide it. With compact wellheads, you can continue your operations with less idle time, by eliminating downtime and time spent waiting for cement and recaps. This service and related technology will help position us within the top three service providers soon, allowing us to gain a larger market share.
Moreover, we have a USD 5-million contract over two years with CCED for the rental of three-phase separator units, while also performing inspection for their rigs and equipment, a very specialised service that we can deliver thanks to API accreditation.

How well positioned is the company for sealing partnership agreements?
Regarding current partnerships, we’ve managed to secure them with several international companies, including Alpha Engineering of the UK and Quality Wire Products of Bahrain.
We also have a strategy to localise the rig manufacturing business here in Oman and get new partners on board. Currently we are in talks to set up plants in-country with Drillmec, an Italian leader in the design, manufacturing and distribution of drilling and workover rigs for onshore and offshore applications as well as a wide range of drilling equipment. We are close to signing an agreement with them. With a long relationship since 2019, we have already built an A-frame for Saipem’s operations in the UAE with their support.
As a local company, we rely on international expertise and technologies to move to the next level and make rig manufacturing a reality in Oman. On our side, we offer a competent team with a solid background, as well as compliance with quality and on-time delivery standards. We have an in-depth knowledge of the domestic oil and gas market, having been operating here for more than a decade, and we have all the right tools to support any international partner.

Can you walk us through HEMT’s key assets?
We have an 18,000-square-metre workshop and we are setting up a new one of around 14,000 square metres, which we plan to open this year. In total, we will have about 32,000-34,000 square metres. Our strength is that we are not only offering manufacturing or fabrication workshops, but we have different service arms, which makes us a one-stop shop able to provide many services, all of them in-house.
Furthermore, we are fully aware of the importance of our human capital, which we consider a major asset, and we invest a lot of resources in training our people, particularly youth. In this regard, we offer several programmes, one of which involves the recruitment of fresh graduate engineers.
We have strong selection criteria for the candidates, who, if accepted, need to go through our complete training. In 2022 alone, we got on board 15 fresh graduates, who are now holding different positions in procurement, engineering and inspection services such as welding and painting. We also provide them with a certificate that is recognised in the market.

What is your strategy for growth and what objectives have you set for the future?
Our medium-term plan is to strengthen our detailed engineering services. We are in discussion with one of the experts in this field and will start working on small to medium-sized EPC projects. At the moment we only operate within our workshop and we don’t have field work, but we see this as an area where we can expand.
We are also in the process of extending our rig maintenance services to the Indian market to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), a government of India-owned company that is the prominent player in the Indian oil industry market. Oil India, BHEL, Reliance and Vedanta are the other major players in the Indian oil and gas sector whom we target.
We have established relations with international partners to localise the services such as NORM [naturally occurring radioactive material] treatment and disposal, steam generation services, procurement house services and EPF.
My plan is to make HEMT a leading company in fabrication, EPC and the rig services business, extending our scope of work and involvement in key projects, particularly in the downstream. We have all the capabilities as well as a very assertive plan for development. In the next three to four years, I see HEMT dealing with projects valued at USD 200 million or more.
It might seem too ambitious and difficult, but it is definitely achievable. I took over the company in 2020 and in 2021 we had almost 35% growth in our total revenues, while in 2022 we had about 25%. We are building up robust foundations for our continuing expansion.

Read our latest insights on:

• Bahrain
• India
• Oman
• Qatar
• UAE