7 minute read
Digital mastery in oil & gas
from OG34
DIGITAL MASTERY
IN OIL & GAS
Connecting utilities and energy companies from across the United Arab Emirates with the world’s top suppliers of oil and gas industry products, services and solutions, is all in a day’s work for the team at Gulf Commercial Group Engineering Services (GCG Engineering Services).
Founded in 1982, the company has developed a formidable reputation in the Middle East for its diverse expertise and solutions. General Manager Nasir Sharif chatted to Richard Hagan about the company’s impressive reach within the industry.
From its centrally situated base in the energy industry hub of Abu Dhabi, GCG Engineering Services provides industrial solutions to the oil and gas industry as well as the defence, aviation and process manufacturing sectors.
All four of these industries are extremely fast-moving markets that are defined by their infinite pursuit of efficiency, value and time-saving. And just as its markets continue to evolve, so has GCG Engineering.
History and evolution
Following its establishment, GCG Engineering primarily focused on servicing the oil and gas industry. Over time the company gradually diversified through supplying systems and solutions first to the fuel industry and then into process automation and finally, digitisation.
The business also incrementally expanded its footprint from its Abu Dhabi base into Dubai, where it began supplying ADNOC in terms of a partnership with US manufacturer Honeywell. With its feet firmly in Dubai, the company evolved into supplying energy and utility companies, including the Dubai Water Authority and the Sharjah Water Authority.
Today, GCG Engineering Services’ offering can be broadly categorised into two verticals: products, and solutions, which it supplies to all of the upstream, midstream and downstream markets as well as to the energy and utility markets.
Whilst the oil and gas industry in the region looks forward to the commencement of several planned energy megaprojects, GCG Engineering’s core market is mid-size EPCs.
“We see high potential and great opportunities in this segment,” highlighted General Manager Nasir Sharif. “We’ve finalised local deals in the mid-tier, mid-segment. We’re also involved in some mega projects but those are still in the initial bidding phase, so it can take some time. With the currently high oil price, there are lots of uncertainties.”
Outside of new build projects, GCG Engineering also participates in the maintenance and refit market. “That segment is going very well,” revealed Mr Sharif. Meanwhile, the company has expanded into Iraq where it has either already completed (or is in the process of) completing several projects.
Modern facilities and high-tech capabilities
GCG Engineering’s head office is in Abu Dhabi. It’s a facility that the company has developed into its innovation centre.
“It acts as a test bench and training centre for our customers, which is why we call it an innovation centre,” Mr Sharif explained. “Its facilities are specifically aimed at oil and gas, water utilities, field side instrumentation and industrial automation. We proudly show it off to our customers. Aside from being a marketing and training asset, we also supply innovation courses from within it to local universities as part of our social outreach programme.”
The company employs a total of 100 people, and of those, its engineering department is a particular ace up its sleeve. “Our in-house engineering is our core competency and capability,” he affirmed.
Thanks to those sophisticated engineering capabilities, GCG Engineering has been able to deliver heavily on digital transformation demands within the industry to the extent that digitalisation has become one of its most popular services.
As recently as 2022, the company was demonstrating the capabilities of its digitalisation teams with a digital transformation project for ADNOC LNG.
“We are providing ADNOC LNG with project management, analysis, modelling, system integration and other services,” Mr Sharif detailed. “ADNOC has three LNG trains that we’re working on, and we’re also participating on some ADNOC projects outside of the oil and gas segment.”
In a particular highlight, GCG Engineering Services is a regional partner with Honeywell and Siemens for automation solutions for the region. “We’re accepted as a leading digitisation contractor,” said Mr Sharif. “We’ve already begun doing these kinds of projects with ADNOC and others.”
Separately in 2022, the company delivered a set of sophisticated heat exchangers to Emirates Steel.
It was also marketing a flare monitoring solution with multinational partner Fluenta. This system currently has the largest market share in the UAE and monitors flares for harmful gases. “It’s an area of high potential for us, we’re already seeing lots of orders for air monitoring solutions,” he noted.
Moreover, the company has recently branched into providing tank gauging systems for oil tanks in storage terminals.
“In all of these projects, we provided turnkey solutions, from engineering, design and manufacturing through to supply and installation,” confirmed Mr Sharif. “Being a local company,
we differentiate ourselves through our design, engineering and project management capabilities, supplying support for industry levels one to five.”
High-profile supply network
GCG Engineering Services counts a global network of high-profile, well-known industry suppliers as part of its vendor portfolio, and as Mr Sharif pointed out, these partners are very popular in the Middle East.
“Our vendor partners are from the United States, Europe and several other locations,” he said. “There is high demand for their products across the Middle East, especially for the systems produced in the United States. That’s particularly true of industrial companies in the oil and gas segment, who prefer US-made products for their high quality.
“However, there is huge competition developing out of Asia –especially India and China,” he continued. “Whilst Western companies have very strong demand and a strong market position in the UAE, we are starting to see similarly strong representation from Asian companies who are particularly well represented in energy, utilities and water. Fortunately, we have a diversified portfolio so for us, the competition is good and it’s simply an opportunity for us to bring all of those companies on board as partners and suppliers.”
While GCG Engineering Services continues to see healthy demand for imported components, it still places a special focus on delivering locally produced products, a category it calls ‘incountry’ value. This valuable support helps local companies who have made substantial local investments to also reap the rewards of the value they’ve developed in-country.
Despite global shortages of electronics and electronic components, the company has thus far largely managed to mitigate supply chain delays through intelligent stockholding.
“We started stocking much more material through pre-orders,” Mr Sharif revealed. “We anticipated the orders that we expected for coming quarters and that stock allowed us to meet the delivery expectations of our customers. Raw material price fluctuations continue to be a challenge as well, but that’s something we’re also managing through our stocking arrangements.”
Sustainability and expansion
As part of its continued efforts to grow its networks, the company participates annually in ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi. “We showcase our new products and any projects we’ve completed that year,” said Mr Sharif. “We participate on an annual basis every November when the expo takes place. We are especially looking for opportunities to expand our operations in the region from our centre of excellence in Abu Dhabi.”
Meanwhile, the company has adopted a number of sustainability initiatives to reduce its environmental impact. In 2022, its biggest milestone in this regard was the elimination of the majority of physical paperwork throughout its operations, including digital approvals and the introduction of digital ERP and CRM for financial reporting.
Organisationally, the company has a number of training, mentoring and coaching programmes in place to identify, nurture and raise up its best talent, all as part of its efforts to ensure the sustainability of the organisation itself.
Going forward, and outside of its already mentioned plans to continue its growth in Iraq, GCG Engineering Services also has firm plans to expand into Saudi Arabia where it will be opening an office that will become an extension of its presence elsewhere.
With a strong digitalisation portfolio, a catalogue of highly reputable vendor relationships and a formidable reputation across the region, GCG Engineering looks set to deliver an outstanding future for its customers and stakeholders. n
