Saudi Arabia is expected to invest $119 billion in energy infrastructure projects from 2007 to 2009, according to latest studies, with investments in the refining sector expected to grow by a staggering 2,189 per cent within the same period compared to figures from 2004 to 2006.

The sizeable opportunities within the oil and gas sector have been identified by SAS, a leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services, which aims to deliver business-critical solutions to aid decision-making within the oil and gas sector.
As burgeoning energy requirements continue to mirror the current pace of economic development across the region, National Oil Companies (NOCs) including upstream, midstream and downstream operations in the Middle East are facing challenges such as ageing infrastructure and equipment, lack of efficiency in refinery processes and shortage in skilled manpower, SAS said.
“By utilising SAS solutions, proven on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, companies can reduce the decision-making cycle significantly, thereby lessening risk, increasing efficiency and enabling better use of investment funds,” the company said.
Peter Venn, business development director for oil and gas, SAS - Middle East and Africa, remarked: “In this rapidly growing industry, it is essential to make quick but intelligent operational decisions to ensure efficiency and maximise productivity. By integrating our solutions within their operations, issues that traditionally take months for companies to make a decision on can now be dealt with in a matter of days, which leads to less risks, better recovery rates and increased efficiency and production.”
While enabling companies to quickly create a logical data model that integrates all relevant data from simulations, process, product and equipment-related systems at multiple assets, fields and locations, SAS says its solutions provide companies in the oil and gas sector a holistic view of their critical operation data as well as additional information with regard to their customers, suppliers and service providers. Organisations can also benefit from the solutions by basing their decisions on data from a precise monitoring of their operations and business performance, thereby gaining them valuable efficiency and effectiveness advantages.
SAS claims its solutions have also gained wide popularity for the company’s collaboration platform, which presents secure, accurate, consolidated knowledge in a way that enables managers and engineers to surface key issues, navigate hierarchical views of the data, perform targeted analyses and collaborate on all of this. Plant managers and work management groups will be able to consolidate financial data with information on operational measures and statistics such as well sensor, rotary equipment information and weather data, it says.
“Energy requirements across the globe are growing at a very fast rate, and it is critical for companies to address challenges that arise within the entire production process to meet the growing demands. For a company to be successful amidst the massive extent at which the oil and gas sector is growing, it is truly a tremendous advantage to utilise a tool that helps make robust decisions. As an organisation with extensive experience and a pool of highly trained professionals, we are fully equipped to address this need,” said Venn.