Flowserve Corporation, a leading provider of flow control products and services for the global infrastructure markets, and S&A Abahsain Co Ltd, one of the top 50 business entities within Saudi Arabia, have formally inaugurated a new valve manufacturing plant and training centre in Dammam’s Second Industrial City during an on-site ceremony.

The Dammam manufacturing plant is a state-of-the-art, 55,000 sq ft facility with capabilities for component machining, valve assembly, and testing. The facility is operated by Flowserve Abahsain Flow Control Company Ltd, a joint venture between Flowserve Corp and S&A Abahsain Co Ltd.

The Flowserve Abahsain joint venture was formed early in 2009 to supply valves to the oil and gas, petrochemical, power and water industries. The joint venture commissioned the Dammam manufacturing facility in late 2010, and completed the ISO 9001 certification, Saudi Aramco certification and other major customer approvals in 2011.

The facility reached an important milestone in late 2011 with the successful manufacture, inspection and shipment of the facility’s first large bore control valves to be completely assembled and tested in Saudi Arabia. A total of seven Flowserve Valtek Mark 100 16” ANSI 300 globe valves, with Flowserve Logix 3200 MD positioners, were delivered on schedule to a major grassroots refinery project currently under construction in Saudi Arabia.

The Dammam facility will have the capability to manufacture a broad range of valves and actuators, including Flowserve Valtek globe, ball, plug, butterfly and severe service control valves; Flowserve Valbart trunnion-mounted ball valves; Flowserve Durco/Atomac Teflon-lined plug, ball and butterfly valves; Flowserve Serck Audco plug valves; Flowserve Limitorque electric actuators and Flowserve Automax pneumatic actuators.

The world-class training centre combines classroom instruction with “hands on” training for Flowserve valve and actuation products. Training is available for both Flowserve employees and Saudi customers, and is customisable for operations, maintenance, procurement or engineering personnel.

The fully equipped Flowserve Quick Response Centre (QRC) will provide service and repair support to Saudi-based customers. The QRC employs qualified valve technicians who perform valve repair and troubleshooting either in the facility or at the customer’s site. The QRC maintains an inventory of valves and spare parts, which minimises delivery lead times for customers.

Motassim Ma’ashouq, vice president of new business development with Saudi Aramco, was the special guest speaker at the event. Other dignitaries present for the ceremony included Abdullah Abahsain, CEO of S&A Abahsain; Shaukat Sheikh, managing director of S&A Abahsain; Mark Blinn, president and CEO of Flowserve; Tom Pajonas, chief operating officer of Flowserve; and John Lenander, vice president and general manager, Flowserve Flow Control Division, oil & gas sector.

Meeting the market’s needs

“Our continued investment in this venture underscores our commitment to Saudisation and by leveraging our global application expertise, we are able to meet the needs of our customers in the Saudi Arabia market and across the region.” said Blinn. 

“The new facility opens doors for more opportunities within the Saudi market,” said Shaukat Sheikh. “It is uniquely equipped to meet the needs of customers wishing to purchase products manufactured in Saudi Arabia.”

Flowserve Corp is one of the world’s leading providers of fluid motion and control products and services. Operating in more than 55 countries, the company produces engineered and industrial pumps, seals and valves as well as a range of related flow management services.