A NEW service centre Emerson and its partner Doha Petroleum Construction Company (Dopet) have set up in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, reflects Emerson’s philosophy to gain insight into how its customer’s plants are doing and offer solutions that could add up to big savings in time and money, Emerson’s top marketing official in the region has said.

“We have to be closer to our customers to understand their business and process problems better, so we can be more responsive when they need our help,” said Andrew Dennant, marketing director, Emeron Process Management, Middle East and Africa.

“This is why we are opening a network of service centres. They are not all the same because our customers are not all the same. But they all have the same goal – we want to be the best local service provider we can be.”

Dennant noted that plants of Emerson’s customers are strategically important to the countries in which they are located. Some items in a process plant’s web of steelwork could make or break the profitability of the plant and some individual components could shut the whole process down. “So it is really important that we have insight into what those pieces of equipment are doing. That is where we can add value.”

The Ras Laffan Industrial City service centre offers on-the-spot service and repair facilities, doing away with the need to have parts shipped to Emerson facilities abroad for repairs. It follows several facilities Emerson has opened in the region including a valve and measurement factory in Dubai, a flow service centre in Abu Dhabi, a service centre in Jubail, and the largest automation vendor support facility in all of Iraq.

Emerson Process Management makes the broadest range of automation products and services in the world. Operations at a process plant broadly fall into three different major areas – measurement and analysis; automation and optimisation; and final control.

Emerson Electric is a major global player, with $25 billion worth of sales in 2011 and staff of over 120,000 people in 120 countries. In the Middle East and Africa region last year Emerson Electric had more than $1 billion in sales and staff of over 1,000 people. Emerson is split into seven different business platforms, of which Emerson Process Management is the largest (28 per cent of the whole business).

RasGas, one of the plants in Qatar using Emerson technology

Dennant said Dopet had been a clear choice. “We have been their partner since 2000 and in that time we have had better than steady growth, and we also bring complementary capabilities. We were gratified by the investments our customers have made in us and it is time we invested something back. So the next logical step in the relationship with Dopet, our customers and Qatar is the joint opening of the Ras Laffan Industrial City service centre.”

Dopet has a sizeable facility in Ras Laffan to support its civil and mechanical customers and is providing land and personnel.

Amir Khouzani, general manager, Dopet, commented: “Dopet and Emerson have had a healthy business association for the last 12 years. We initially represented four divisions within Emerson – Fisher, Rosemount, Daniels and Micro Motion, and these divisions produced different products. The synergy between our two companies has allowed us to build our relationship and grow our business. Today, we represent 10 sections of Emerson.

“We are a local company with in-depth local knowledge of the business. We also have a very good reputation here in Qatar. That complemented well with Emerson’s international reputation for being a leading supplier of very advanced process management solutions.”

EXCEPTIONAL GROWTH
Dopet revenues have grown by 700 per cent over the last 12 years. Through its relationship with Emerson the company has served companies in Ras Laffan, including RasGas, Qatargas, Dolphin Energy, Ras Laffan Power Company, Ras Laffan Olefins Company and Shell Pearl Gas to Liquid (GTL).

“Qatar continues to be one of the major players in LNG throughout the world. It is diversifying into the downstream side of the process. There are two examples of this – Shell Pearl GTL, which just started to produce ultra-pure diesel, and Ras Laffan Olefins Company, which produces a million tonnes of olefins per year,” observed Khouzani.

Diversification into the downstream and emphasis on modern and innovative technology would mark the Qatari market, the value of which would be about $122 billion in the next 10 to 15 years, he said. “There is also about $1 billion worth of equipment already installed, so what we see is the strength in the Qatari market has enabled us to help our business succeed in Qatar. In essence, the Qatari oil and gas industry in Ras Laffan has put their trust in us and in return we have demonstrated our commitment and appreciation to Qatar in Ras Laffan by setting up this unique service centre.”

Branko Pecar, vice president and general manager, Emerson Process Management, Qatar SSC, said the Energy Industry Council had listed 80 projects with a total capital value of $120 billion, out of which the amount related to process management was approximately $2 billion. Most are upstream contracts, some would start in 2013 and some were not even at the design stage.

Pecar spoke of possibilities of an Emerson role in the projects to come and the usefulness of the new service centre.

“There are three benefits that the service centre brings to our customers – maximised uptime, maximised plant availability and maximised reliability of the plant,” he said.

The official said a lot of the equipment was “smart,” designed to pick up measurements and environmental variables and indirectly had capability to detect toxic leaks.

“By default a lot of our equipment will give you diagnostic information related to the environment.”