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Malaysia’s PETRONAS has signed an MoU with OQ Exploration and Production New Ventures LLC (OQEP) a wholly-owned subsidiary of OQ Exploration and Production SAOG, to jointly pursue opportunities for oil and gas exploration and production across the Middle East and Southeast Asia

The collaboration will leverage PETRONAS’ international upstream expertise and OQEP’s regional knowledge, aiming to unlock new growth opportunities and accelerate value creation in diverse markets.

The agreement was signed at OQPE's headquarters in Oman by Mohd Redhani Abdul Rahman, vice president of International Assets of PETRONAS Upstream, and Mahmoud Al Hashmi, acting chief executive officer and chief operations officer of OQEP,. 

Redhani said, “This collaboration represents a meaningful step forward in our efforts to build a resilient and competitive upstream portfolio. By aligning our strengths with OQEP’s strategic direction, we are well-positioned to pursue impactful ventures in these regions.”

PETRONAS has been active in Oman since 2018 and currently holds participating interests in Block 61. This MoU builds upon the growing relationship between PETRONAS and OQEP, anchored on mutual respect and shared industry goals.

Oman's largest pure-play oil and gas exploration and production company and it is the only upstream oil and gas operator owned by the Government of Oman. OQEP currently ranks among the top three oil and gas producers and is also one of the largest holders of oil and gas reserves in Oman.

SABEQ’s managing director, Sreenivasa Shenoy, discusses how decarbonisation, advanced materials, and data-driven engineering are redefining performance expectations across the energy value chain

Oil Review Middle East (ORME): Decarbonisation and lifecycle performance are central to today’s energy transition. How is this influencing the selection and qualification of project materials?

Sreenivasa Shenoy (SS): The global drive toward decarbonisation is accelerating the demand for materials that extend service life, minimise fugitive emissions, and reduce maintenance-related carbon impact. We are seeing increased specification of 3LPE, FBE, and PTFE coating systems for pipelines and process lines, alongside a shift toward forged components that deliver higher mechanical strength and dimensional integrity. The focus is no longer only on corrosion resistance — but on overall system reliability and total cost of ownership. This evolution aligns material selection with ESG and operational efficiency goals.

ORME: With digitalisation and AI integration advancing, how do you see these technologies transforming material engineering and procurement practices?

SS: AI and digital twins are already influencing material verification and design optimisation. Predictive analytics can assess coating degradation rates, weld performance, or corrosion under insulation based on real data from field operations. This enables more accurate material selection and lifecycle planning. On the supply side, digital traceability and automated document validation are enhancing compliance with international standards. For suppliers like SABEQ, the ability to provide structured documentation, MTC validation, and integrated QA/QC data will be critical to align with the industry’s digital transformation.

ORME: Where do you see the strongest material demand in the coming project cycles?

SS: Natural gas and downstream industrial projects remain major growth areas. As gas is recognised as a lower-carbon transition fuel, there is continued demand for high-performance piping, valves, and forged fittings suitable for cryogenic and high-pressure applications. We are also observing greater adoption of duplex and nickel alloys in critical service conditions, where temperature and corrosion challenges require advanced metallurgy. In parallel, the need for certified coating solutions and field-applied rehabilitation systems continues to expand.

ORME: What differentiates SABEQ in the current project materials landscape?

SS: Our strength lies in combining technical expertise with process discipline. We engage early in the specification stage, ensuring materials meet project-specific mechanical and corrosion requirements. SABEQ’s integrated approach — from coating qualification and third-party inspection to traceable documentation — helps EPCs and end users mitigate risk. We focus on engineering-led supply, where every product delivered supports design integrity, operational safety, and audit compliance.

Farabi Petrochemicals Company has inaugurated its fourth integrated Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant in Saudi Arabia

The US$950mn state-of-the-art facility, located in Yanbu Industrial City, adds 120,000 metric tons per year of LAB capacity. Built adjacent to Aramco’s refineries, the plant leverages locally produced kerosene and benzene feedstocks, ensuring world-class integration, efficiency, and sustainability performance.

The new plant underlines Farabi’s commitment to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 objectives of downstream diversification, localisation and GDP growth.

The company also signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Unilever to expand their 20-year strategic partnership. Unilever is the world’s largest buyer of LAB, a key ingredient in household and industrial cleaning products.

The expanded agreement aligns Farabi’s capacity growth with Unilever’s constantly growing global demand in home care products, supporting innovation and sustainable growth. Both companies expressed confidence that this deepened collaboration will generate long-term value and advance their shared sustainability goals.

Eng. Mohammed Al Wadaey, CEO of Farabi Petrochemicals Group, said, “Farabi Petrochemicals is proud to be the world’s largest producer of LAB and NP which is the result of consistent growth, product diversification, advanced industrial infrastructure and dedication of our talented employees. We actively support Vision 2030 driving economic diversification, creating job opportunities, contributing to Saudi Arabia’s position as a global industrial hub, while maintaining a positive impact in the environment.”

Muhammed Nadeem, SVP, Yokogawa UAE Industry and head of energy & sustainability at Yokogawa Middle East & Africa, speaks to Oil Review Middle East about the company’s focus at ADIPEC and its commitment to the UAE, where it has had a presence for almost 30 years 

Nadeem begins by commenting on the role of ADIPEC in setting the tone for innovation, and the alignment of Yokogawa’s values and founding principles with those of the UAE and the region – ie of AI and innovation; sustainability; and localisation.

“If we talk about AI or innovation, I would like to refer to our purpose – "Utilising our ability to measure and connect, we fulfill our responsibilities for the future of our planet," he says. This is guided by Yokogawa’s corporate brand slogan, "Co-innovating tomorrow," and involves a commitment to solving social and environmental issues through its core competencies in measurement, control, and information technology.

“On sustainability, Yokogawa focuses on three goals – well being, net zeroing and circular economy,” he continues, “and when it comes to in-country value, we are committed to contributing to the societies where we operate.”

Progressing autonomous operations

Discussing Yokogawa’s recent successes on the innovation and AI front, he shares that in the UAE Yokogawa has conducted three proof of concepts (POCs) for its new FKDPP technology, an autonomous control AI protocol that makes use of reinforcement learning technology. It can control and autonomise areas of plant operations that have up to now necessitated manual operation. Nadeem notes that these have led to potential savings and value additions in net zeroing, energy management as well as quality and safety, given the elimination of the requirement for human intervention and therefore of human error and subjectivity. One of these POCs is for an AI-powered autonomous control room for Borouge’s Ruwais facility, where Yokogawa is using AI-based technologies to analyse data, identify patterns, and predict anomalies, enabling faster corrective actions and reducing unplanned shutdown risks. The POC is also exploring how autonomous control room operations can enhance efficiency and plant performance.

“We have had similar successes recently in Saudi Arabia as well,” Nadeem adds, referring to the implementation at the Fadhili gas plant, where Yokogawa has successfully deployed multiple autonomous control AI agents working together to autonomously control and optimise acid gas removal (AGR) operations at the plant. Initial results demonstrate a 10% to 15% reduction in its amine and steam usage, around 5% reduction in power usage, improved process stability, and a significant decrease in operator manual intervention, despite ambient condition changes. “The client is very happy with the ROI,” he comments.

This combination of multiple AI involves not only agents but also some of the drivers, such as robotics. “If you can send machines into an oilfield which has a lot of sulphur content, you can save lives,” he stresses.

He adds that Yokogawa is no longer a control company but an autonomous company, as reflected in its mission statement, and is system agnostic.

Evolution of AI

On the progress of AI, Nadeem comments that we have passed the “crawling” stage and are on the “walk to run” phase. Referring to the opening remarks at ADIPEC of Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and CEO of ADNOC, he said, “People understand that without AI, as Dr Al Jaber said today, you will be nowhere. You cannot ignore it. We have moved beyond the proof of concept stage to proof of value. In fact, we are actually on the borderline between proof of value and full-flight deployment. Yokogawa has moved beyond proof of value – we are now talking about the reoccurring model, where we have already given the concept the value and it is now running. I go back to what Dr Al Jaber said this morning; we are not here to give the vision or the dream, we are here for delivery. Because the vision without the action will be hallucination – we have to deliver it.”

He adds that the shared vision and commitment of the NOCs and IOCs to AI and innovation has supported Yokogawa’s drive to put R&D and manpower resources into AI developments.
“We are very proud that our leadership has recognised that this region is at the heart not only of energy development but also innovation. So we have established our Centres of Excellence for AI, robotics and cyber security in this region, to serve the whole globe. Not in Japan, not in Europe, not in the USA but in Abu Dhabi and Dammam. This will help not only our clients but also our ability to grow and devote all our energy to the right direction.”

Turning to sustainability, he comments that this is often a natural by-product of innovation around safety and quality, as these technologies will also lead to sustainability.
“Sustainability can involve multiple goals, but let’s take for example wellbeing. If people are assisted by AI they can have a good work/life balance, right? If they are using AI, they can be more productive. Another example is energy management, where energy management savings contribute to sustainability. Well being and net zero are all built in if you go with the right products, and the right partners like your product.”

On localisation, Nadeem reiterates that one of Yokogawa’s founding values is contributing to the societies in which it operates, and that the region’s in-country value initiatives tie in with Yokogawa’s vision and founding values. “We were operating locally even before the establishment of the UAE’s ICV and Saudi Arabia’s IKTVA initiatives,” he points out. “Since 2009 we have been operating all our control system cyber security out of Abu Dhabi, Dammam, or Bahrain or Qatar, from wherever the customers are. And we are not only talking about establishing our own centres, but doing all our life cycle management out of our local centres in the region, from engineering design, to testing, delivery and after service. So we are walking the walk, not just talking the talk.”

Key message at ADIPEC

Returning to the company’s focus at ADIPEC, Nadeem says Yokogawa’s key message aligns with the ADIPEC theme of energy, intelligence and impact. “We all require energy, and to repeat one of the themes of the opening, we are not talking about energy transition but about energy addition. So we are working on renewables and hydrogen alongside our traditional oil and gas business. This is one of our key themes for this edition of ADIPEC. Then on the AI and innovation theme, we are talking about robotics and Yokogawa Chat GPT, where we help operators with their decision making, and thirdly, we are looking at circular economy, net zeroing and wellbeing. And we are now moving beyond proof of concept and proof of value to deployment.

“I’m very excited as I have taken part in ADIPEC for the past 25 years, and I was saying to some of our young people here, I don’t see it just as an exhibition and event, as I see innovations launched here becoming reality in the future. ADIPEC is creating not only the dialogue, but also the delivery.”

Despite advances in digital technology, many oil and gas sites across the Middle East still rely on manual entry for tank and vessel inspections, resulting in days of downtime, high scaffolding costs and risk to human life

What if you could change all that with drone technology?

Inspections drones such as the Elios 3 are revolutionising the world of confined space inspections, improving safety, reducing downtime and enhancing operational efficiency.

Join us for an exclusive live webinar hosted by Flyability in association with Oil Review Middle East on ‘Transforming oil and gas operations with the Elios 3 drone’ on Tuesday 2 September at 2pm GST. Industrial experts will explain how drones such as the Elios 3 are transforming confined space inspections, and how you can integrate this technology into your operations seamlessly.

Key highlights:

Drone integration: learn how to safety and effectively implement drones in confined space
Safety and training: understand essential safety protocols and training strategies for your team
ROI: discover how to measure and achieve a strong return on investment with drone technology
Real world use cases: hear from the engineers using drone tech in the field on the impact Elios 3 is having on in oil and gas inspections.

Speakers and host:

Fabio Fata – senior sales manager, Flyability (moderator)
Eralp Koltuk – inspection lead engineer, Tüpraş
Danijel Jovanovic – director of operations, ZainTECH

Take your operations to the next level! Don’t miss out on gaining valuable insights into how drones can make inspections safer, faster and smarter .

From making inspections in hazardous confined spaces much safer to streamlining the whole process and providing valuable real-time data, you will get to see exactly how the Elios 3 is changing the game.

Register for the free webinar here.

Government and industry responses to UN Environment Programme (UNEP) satellite methane alerts rose from 1% to 12% cent in the past year, and oil and gas methane emissions reporting has improved, but action needs to accelerate to achieve the Global Methane Pledge goal of curbing methane emissions 30% by 2030, according to a new UNEP report

Atmospheric methane continues to be the second biggest driver of climate change after carbon dioxide, responsible for about one-third of the planet’s warming, and real-world data is a critical tool to track and reduce methane emissions.

The fifth edition of the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) publication, An Eye on Methane: From measurement to momentum, finds that member oil and gas companies of IMEO’s Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0) are set to track one-third of emissions from global production using real-world measurements. The OGMP 2.0 is the world’s global standard for methane emissions measurement and mitigation in the oil and gas sector. Over the past five years, OGMP 2.0 membership has more than doubled to 153 companies in the countries, covering 42% of global oil and gas production.

One-third of global oil and gas production reports, or will soon report, emissions at OGMP 2.0’s Gold Standard – meaning emissions are tracked with real-world measurements. This positions a large amount of the global industry to effectively measure – and thus mitigate – emissions. One of the companies achieving 'Gold Standard reporting' in 2024 for having effectively achieved the highest levels of data quality is Eni. OGMP 2.0’s 2025 report recognized Eni for its continued progress, including identifying and quantifying emissions across non-operated assets, as well as training and technical assistance on the LDAR (Leak Detection and Repair) approach to fugitive emissions. LDAR training sessions were organised with the support of UNEP and delivered to National Oil Company (NOC) personnel.

The report highlights that while government and company responses to alerts from IMEO’s Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) have grown tenfold over the previous year, nearly 90% remain unanswered, necessitating an increase in response rates. Through MARS, UNEP has sent over 3,500 alerts about major emissions events across 33 countries. These alerts are based on satellite monitoring and artificial intelligence-supported analysis. IMEO has documented 25 cases of mitigation action in ten countries since MARS was launched in 2022, including across six new countries during the past year.

“Reducing methane emissions can quickly bend the curve on global warming, buying more time for long-term decarbonisation efforts, so it is encouraging that data-driven tools are helping the oil and gas industry to report on their emissions and set ambitious mitigation targets,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP. “But to keep the Paris Agreement targets within reach, the important progress on reporting must translate into cuts to emissions. Every company should join the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, and both governments and operators must respond to satellite alerts – then they must act to reduce emissions.”