Technology Talks

Can you talk about Schlumberger’s presence in the UAE and its business performance for 2013?

Schlumberger UAE GeoMarket is part of the Middle East Area, which has a geographical coverage stretching from Egypt to India, headquartered in Dubai. Schlumberger has been operating in Abu Dhabi since 1951; in fact we were in Abu Dhabi for the nation’s initial hydrocarbon discovery. There has been a change in the market dynamic over the past few years, since the mandate to increase production capacity has allowed many interesting and challenging projects to start in Abu Dhabi. Schlumberger partners with ADNOC and its operating companies (OPCOs). The outlook is good and we are involved in world-class projects that make use of extended reach drilling. Also, we provide services for Al Hosn through its sour gas development project. For northern Emirates activities, we work for Dubai Petroleum and Crescent Petroleum in Sharjah, for which we provided seismic activity work and are looking forward to the restart of their drilling operations. As far as our contribution to Schlumberger global operations is concerned, the UAE GeoMarket, with these challenging projects, has a wide scope and also saw solid activity growth in 2013; this was underpinned by support from our HQ in terms of additional resources and cutting-edge technologies to meet the rising needs of the UAE market.

What will the renewal of concessions mean for Schlumberger?

It will definitely mean more and greater opportunities. We will leverage the technical partnerships we have developed in the UAE markets over the years with the latest technology to meet arising industry challenges, as the “easy oil” no longer exists. I think we will also see different business models from the past. Al Hosn company for example—60% ADNOC 40% Occidental—greatly differs from the current ADCO concessions in term of the number of IOCs and their share ratio. The UAE will remain vital for Schlumberger; we are committed to the oil and gas industry in this country. For example, in 2007, we inaugurated our 120,000 sqm state-of-the-art Middle East & Asia Training Centre. The center’s land was donated by ADNOC, which we greatly appreciate.

Which of your technologies can be employed in these new projects?

Schlumberger is highly diverse, with 15 technology segments, all being present in the UAE. In that respect, there is definitely much on hand as far as reservoir characterization and enhanced oil recovery are concerned. Sour gas with a high H2S content is not a straightforward matter, and requires special equipment and an upgrade to meet this harsh environment. We are focused on adapting our existing technology to accommodate such environments. Drilling is definitely another domain where a lot of new Schlumberger technology is being brought to the market, in particular a 35,000 feet extended reach well is being drilled. In April 2013 we inaugurated the Drilling PetroTechnical Engineering Centre (PTEC) under the patronage of ADNOC to address the increased drilling complexity observed in the UAE. The Drilling PTEC now hosts 25 drilling experts with various domains. The UAE is in fact a test destination for our new technology, and another example to support their deployment is our Abu Dhabi Geoscience and Petroleum Engineering Centre, where more than 30 experts work on sub-surface studies from exploration study to a full-field development study. Our partnership with ADNOC and its OPCOs has allowed us to identify technology needs, resulting in many submissions of proposals from the UAE to Schlumberger regarding R&D. Schlumberger invested a colossal $1.2 billion in R&D in 2012, and we have always been a technology company. Yet it’s not enough to have the technology; it has to work reliably in changing environments.