Industry

The agreement was signed by H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Faisal Al-Thani, chief executive officer of Qatar Free Zones Authority, and Judson Duncan, group president, Global Sales at Emerson. (Image source: Emerson)

At a time of geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruption, operations that enable customers to source goods and services locally can play a key role in helping them reduce operational disruption and accelerate time-to-market

Emerson is doing just that with plans to build a new automation solutions and operations centre in the Umm Alhoul Free Zone in Qatar, to include a flow calibration lab, along with other critical automation technologies designed to help customers optimise operations, reduce turnaround time, minimise costs and accelerate project timelines.

An agreement to establish the centre was signed on the sidelines of Qatar Economic Forum (QEF) in New York City in the presence of Qatar Free Zone dignitaries.

Aligning with Qatar Vision 2030 objectives

Emerson already has a strong existing footprint of manufacturing, service and distribution locations in the Middle East across Saudi Arabia and UAE, along with an extensive network of service partners in the region. The 3,500 sq metre Emerson Middle East & Africa Service Center will expand Emerson’s local capabilities for customers in Qatar and across the Middle East and Africa, reinforcing the company’s expanding automation and industrial technology presence in the region, contributing to in-country value creation and aligning with Qatar Vision 2030 objectives around economic growth, diversification and industrialisation. This will see Qatar transformed from a hydrocarbons-based economy to an advanced, diversified and competitive global knowledge-based market, with the expansion of industrial sectors and leveraging advanced supply chains. It also aims to create a business-friendly environment capable of attracting foreign funds and technologies and of encouraging national investments.

A first for Qatar

The new facility is significant in that it will host the region’s first certified in-country flow calibration lab, with the capability of calibrating large-size flow meters for high-pressure and high-volume operations. These are extensively used in Qatar’s heavy industrial sectors such as oil and gas, chemicals, power and water to measure and monitor fluid, gas and steam transfer.

The Qatar facility will also feature:

• Measurement instrumentation solutions and skid training systems
• Off-the-shelf inventory and spare parts distribution
• A training and experience center for customer operations teams
• Staging and integration services for distributed control systems

The contol systems staging and measurement solutions services, spares inventory and training centre will open in Decemebr 2026, with the certified flow calibration lab following in early 2027.

“This new investment reflects Emerson’s strategic commitment to accelerating innovation in Qatar and supporting the Middle East’s most critical operations,” said Judson Duncan, group president of Global Sales at Emerson. “Our additional capabilities will enable customers to operate with greater agility, reliability and cost efficiency.”

SLB has been awarded four integrated well construction contracts by Aramco to support oil and gas development across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Under the contracts, SLB will manage end-to-end well construction services, delivering more than 450 wells over the three-year term, with an optional extension of up to two years.

What is integrated well construction?

As projects become larger and more complex, integrating planning, execution and digital workflows helps to reduce operational costs, speed up delivery, and minimise risks. In Namibia, an integrated well construction campaign cut the award-to-spud cycle by 67%, from a traditional 18-month timeline to six months.

Streamlined approach

Integrated well construction brings together engineering, drilling, and completions into a single, streamlined approach to well design and execution, through a technology-enabled operating model. It combines digital drilling workflows with automated drilling, evaluation, fluids, cementing, and completions products and services to improve efficiency, consistency, and well performance across diverse, large-scale drilling programmes. Integration ensures that information flows seamlessly throughout the organisation, without silos.

Planning to execution expertise

SLB’s well engineering expertise optimises every phase—from exploration to full field development—through strong risk management and operational oversight. This enables the delivery of safe, efficient, and precise outcomes tailored to the customer’s reservoir challenges.

Leading technologies

SLB combines advanced well construction technologies with fit-for-purpose solutions to improve performance and set new standards in execution.

Digitally enabled workflows

From autonomous drilling to AI-driven decision-making, digital solutions drive smarter, faster, and more reliable results.

"Delivering hundreds of wells across a multi-year programme and in multiple operating environments requires an integrated model that connects planning, execution, and digital workflows to set new industry performance benchmarks,” said Steve Gassen, executive vice president of Geographies for SLB. “Awarding SLB these advanced well construction programmes at scale reflects Aramco’s confidence in our integrated model and capabilities."

Building on the longstanding collaboration between SLB and Aramco, the awards represent a significant expansion of SLB's integrated well construction business in the Kingdom and reflect growing customer adoption of integrated delivery models for large-scale drilling programmes, highlighting the model’s ability to improve execution consistency across the well construction lifecycle. It comes as Aramco continues to pursue major projects to maintain maximum sustainable capacity at 12mn bpd, such as the Zuluf crude oil increment project and the Dammam development, as well as to grow gas production capacity by around 80%, with a focus on unlocking its unconventional gas resources. SLB was awarded a five-year contract by Aramco to provide stimulation services for its unconventional gas fields earlier this year.

The phased drilling programme will cover oil producer wells and water injector wells. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has signed a three-year Integrated Drilling Services Contract with Weatherford covering 274 wells across Marmul and Greater Saqr fields as part of its efforts to support planned production growth and improve operational efficiency

This will involve a phased drilling programme covering oil producer wells and water injector wells and is designed to
• improve delivery efficiency
• strengthen cost certainty and achieve a 20% cost reduction compared with conventional pricing models
• enable more predictable rig and resource planning across the fields and
• create greater value for Oman, by developing Omani talent, building national capabilities, expanding local opportunities and retaining greater value in Oman.

Dr. Aflah Said Al Hadhrami, director general of Petroleum Development Oman, said: "Our ability to efficiently and responsibly grow production is fundamental to maximising value from the Sultanate of Oman's hydrocarbon resources."

He added that the agreement marks another step toward production growth as a key pillar of Oman’s institutional transformation, and would support PDO’s commitment to enhancing in-country value by developing local capabilities, investing in Omani talent and retaining more value in the country.

Girish Saligram, chief executive officer of Weatherford, said the contract reflects the company’s commitment to operational excellence, innovation and sustainable value creation.

He added that Weatherford would support PDO’s objectives to improve production efficiency and ensure sustainable field development, while building local capabilities, developing Omani talent and expanding opportunities across the local value chain.

Long-standing collaboration

The award builds on a long-standing collaboration between PDO and Weatherford which saw a five- five-year contract exceeding US$500mn awarded to Weatherford in 2022 from PDO to deliver Integrated Drilling Services in the Marmul and Greater Saqr fields. At the time it was envisaged that Weatherford would deliver more than 700+ wells in the two fields over the years, combining a suite of technologies to deliver holistic and innovative solutions that maximise drilling efficiency. Weatherford said the project is an integral part of Weatherford Oman’s In-Country Value strategy and also in line with Oman’s Vision 2040 to deliver safe and sustainable energy for the future.

Saligram commented at the time, “Our Integrated Services offering is gaining significant traction in the market. This award builds on our long and proven history of delivering technology leadership and innovation and is a testament to the competitiveness of our portfolio.

“Our service quality, value proposition, and local content positioned Weatherford as the clear partner of choice and will enable safe drilling operations that maximise efficiency while delivering value and reducing carbon emissions.”

About the Marmul field

The Marmul field is a major mature onshore oil field located in the Dhofar governorate of southern Oman, containing heavy and viscous crude oil. Over the past 15 years, an extensive polymer flooding program has been implemented to enhance oil recovery and counter production declines.

About the Greater Saqr field

The Greater Saqr field is a major onshore energy development project located in the southern region of Oman, spanning an area of 112 sq km in the governorate of Shalim and Halaniyyat Islands. It combines production from six satellite fields and utilises water flooding to enhance recovery. The production capacity of the gathering station which came online in 2024 is 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

Oman’s oil production

Oman’s average daily oil production rose by more than 10% to nearly 1.1mn barrels per day (bpd) in the first six months of 2026, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), up from 989,200 bpd a year earlier. The country’s oil and natural gas infrastructure has remained largely unaffected by the regional conflict, with the country’s principal export terminals located outside the Strait of Hormuz. This has enabled the sultanate to maintain uninterrupted energy exports while benefiting from higher production levels. Oman has pioneered enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to reverse declining production, which have met with considerable success.

HE Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi , Qatar’s Energy Minister, CEO and president of QatarEnergy speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum. (Image source: QatarEnergy)

Qatar now expects production from its massive North Field East LNG expansion to start up in 2027, according to HE Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi , Qatar’s Energy Minister, CEO and president of QatarEnergy

Speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg: UNGA Special Edition 2026 in New York, the Minister said the first production train at North Field East – the initial phase of Qatar’s LNG expansion – is expected to come online in the first half of 2027 as shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz slow projects across the country’s economy. It had previously been expected to start production this year.

Tightening LNG supplies

The world's largest single non-associated gas field, the North Field, spanning over 6,000 sq. km, represents 20% of the world's total gas reserves. Qatar’s North Field expansion projects aim to raise LNG production capacity to 142mn tons per annum (MTPA) before the end of this decade. The North Field South project – the second phase of the expansion – is slated to come online in 2028, Al-Kaabi said – but these timings will depend on what happens in the Hormuz Strait and the ability to get facilities coming in.

The timeline reinforces the expectations that the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war threatens to tighten global LNG supplies for years, Bloomberg comments. Disruptions have already cut LNG supplies from Qatar — the world’s second largest LNG exporter and a key supplier to both the Asian and European markets — sending spot prices surging to the highest level since 2022 in Asia and Europe.

Qatar’s Ras Laffan plant, which produced nearly a fifth of the world’s LNG before the war began in February, can resume operations at undamaged parts of the facility “within a couple of weeks” when Hormuz reopens, the Minister said. The attack on Ras Laffan early on in the conflict resulted in damage to two LNG trains and Shell’s GTL plant, prompting Qatar to declare force majeure to its affected buyers.

“Repairs on the GTL train will be concluded in the first quarter of 2027. However, it will take three years for repairs on the two LNG trains,” the Minister said. 

Qatar is currently exporting a very small amount of LNG through the Strait, Al-Kaabi said, adding that Doha has decided not to build bypass pipelines.

“LNG, our main export commodity, cannot be transported by pipelines. We will have to transport it by pipelines as gas and then liquify it at the receiving terminal, wherever that may be. This means we are building reductant facilities to the ones we are already building in Qatar as part of the North Field expansion project. This makes no economic sense.”

Diversifying options

Qatar is pivoting to become a larger trader of LNG in the meantime, and is handling more LNG outside of the Persian Gulf with the start of its Golden Pass export facility in the US. Shipments have started from the first train.

“We expect next year to have both the second and third trains in full operations. We are also building the largest ethane cracker in the world at the Golden Triangle Polymers Project.” The project will be starting up in the next few weeks, he said.

 “We will be, in the very near future, the largest LNG trader in the world by far,” said Al-Kaabi. “And we’re building our position to become the largest trader.”