Land of Eastern Promise

By Iain Morrison, Director of Business Development

There’s no doubt that the past 12 months have been some of the most challenging times for oil and gas operators around the globe. The economic downturn has had a major impact on activity in many parts of the world with everyone from super majors to small independents being affected in some way.

The lack of available credit from western banks has made several projects planned by smaller independent operators unviable while the larger operators have postponed drilling activity in areas such as Northern America and Europe.

But, as some oil and gas companies face making tough choices about their future others are turning their focus to the lure of eastern promise.

In parts of the eastern hemisphere the outlook is much more positive. Countries including China and India are still experiencing a level of economic growth which means there is a continuing demand for energy supplies. These and other locations are keen to guarantee their future growth and stability by securing access to and supply of oil and gas products.

As a result, Middles Eastern and Asian national oil companies (NOC) such as Aramco, Kuwait Oil Company, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, KazMunaiGas and Turkmengas are now major forces within the petroleum industry - continually increasing their activity and presence in the marketplace. NOC operations in the Middle East and Asia are taking steps to secure and increase future production in order to maintain the economic growth of their host countries.

Additionally, political change in other Middle Eastern states such as Iraq and Iran will also fuel an increase in exploration and production activity, which will in turn require local industry restructuring and technical and commercial assistance.

This strategic shift in approach by these countries is changing the oil and gas playing field. And for those who are able to respond the opportunities are huge.

AGR Petroleum Services was quick to recognise the huge potential that exists in this burgeoning market and recently opened offices in Dubai commencing operations to provide support to operators active across Middle East and Asia.

With its vast experience of working in some of the most challenging environments across the globe, the company with all its resources was ideally placed to make the most of the emerging opportunities. 

Its Middle East team has worked hard to cement its presence and build its profile in the region. This has been achieved by expanding the scale of the business model from supporting traditional European, North American and Australian markets to support these emerging markets, particularly - but not restricted to - the National Oil Company sector.

The scale of the business model now includes provision of bespoke support to a much broader range of customers, across all industry locations, now including National Oil Companies, major independent oil companies, and the major service companies for them in turn to supply full service on larger projects, as well as continued traditional support for the smaller independent oil companies.

The results of these steps are already being seen and we have secured a number of contracts with operators in the region.

But the new opportunities are not without their own unique set of challenges. The main one being the acceptance of the concept of outsourcing many of the technical, commercial or contractual functions, traditionally held by the operating company, in these markets. This challenge has been met by demonstrating that AGR Petroleum Services has a proven track record of accomplishment in its traditional areas of operation. During 2007 and 2008, only StatoilHydro and Shell were responsible for managing more well construction projects in Northern Europe than AGR Petroleum Services. 

Since it was formed in 2005 AGR Petroleum Services, which is part of the long- established AGR Group, has developed an enviable reputation for delivering high quality solutions and as a result, has the experience, scale, resources and organisational capabilities to undertake multiple projects for multiple clients in emerging regions.

Having drilled more than 380 wells in 17 countries for 90 clients, the company has extensive experience of drilling in a vast range of environments, not just in its home regions of UAE, Norway, UK, US and Australia but also including remote operations in countries such as Mauritania, Tunisia, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Benin, India, France and Ireland.

The company is a combination of the 'best in class' companies in well construction, Geology & Geophysics and reservoir engineering and field development expertise. It is structured in a similar manner and scale to an operator to allow an easy fit with its clients, in a responsive manner - scalable for each client.

Similar to an oil company, operator divisions comprise of Reservoir Management, Well Management, Field Management, Consultancy Services and Training, also including robust shared support services including supply chain management, contracting and HS&E. 

AGR Petroleum Services is therefore a major global entity that can manage the entire upstream field life cycle using our in-house personnel. Our divisions are capable of working either independently or as a combined team to ensure clients have access to highly experienced engineers who are at the cutting edge of their specialist field. In this way our clients are able to pick and choose either the full service or only what they need when they need it.

We have more than 550 staff, supported by a further 240 consultants or so, with offices in all major oil and gas regions around the globe including: Norway, UK, Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan, UAE, Canada, Tunisia and the US. Due to the breadth of our human resources we are able to offer multilingual support.

For further information about AGR Petroleum Services visit www.agr.com