Having been at the forefront of the Middle Easts pipes and tubes supply sector for more than three decades, Gerab National Enterprises LLC has begun to diversify its service offering as it looks to capitalise on the regions booming oil and gas industry
Speaking to Oil Review Middle East at last November's ADIPEC, Gerab National Enterprises CEO R Venkata Subramanian revealed that the stockist had now expanded its services into the valve automation sector, as well as confirming the its international intentions.
"We saw that, as we were already carrying the stocks, there were some types of assembly, retrofit and automation work that could be delivered to the customer on very short notice," Subramanian remarked.
Having supplied pipes and other products to some of Saudi Arabia's largest oil projects, Subramanian said he believed the company had earned the confidence of its customer in the region, and could therefore conduct business anywhere.
"Being based in Dubai, we are able to meet customer demands quickly and our transit time is usually less that a week – even to the furthest location within the GCC," he said.
"In order to add that to our service deliverables we set up an office in Saudi Arabia and with that market being the biggest in the region we can now deliver from within the Kingdom itself."
An annual ADIPEC
Gerab has attended ADIPEC since the first edition of the show, leading Subramanian to claim that the firm was pleased to see the exhibition become an annual event.
"Going yearly is very exciting for us," Subramanian stated. "Exhibitions are not just a place to showcase your capabilities, but to understand the way customers perceive us. It also gives us a chance to demonstrate to our customers that being here, as a local entity, is very important to us.
"We have seen the number of participants [at ADIPEC over the years] grow and we can see that everybody wants to demonstrate their capabilities, which demonstrated to me the importance of the event."
Growing internationally
Along with its traditionally strong presence in the UAE, the company has continued to target both emerging and established oil and gas markets elsewhere in the Middle East.
"Over the last 35 years we have consolidated our position as the key player in the GCC region. We are looking at the emerging markets such as Libya and other areas, because there are opportunities," said Subramanian.
"We have a lot of projects lined up in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, which are coming online over the next three years.
"We're talking about the ZADCO project and a lot of initiatives from Saudi Aramco and we can see a lot of flow lines that are coming through in Oman as well," he added.
"Kuwait has always been active in spite of internal delays, but we believe that these four markets have a lot of expectation, as well as Qatar when the construction for the 2022 World Cup begins."
With demand across the region maintaining its momentum, the company has noted an increase in what Subramanian termed "niche products or exotic product ranges" such as stainless steel alloys and super duplex materials.
The company's sister companies Gerab Systems Technology LLC also recently partnered with US-based organisation Mojix and became its regional distributor for its warehouse management system.
"Mojix is trying to pitch its product in the Middle East and we are working out with them to promote it in the market. We have been conducting internal testing and evaluation on the product with them," Subramanian explained.
The Dubai-based company already has a presence in the USA with an office in Houston. It international presence is supported by an Indian office in Hyderabad, a procurement office in China, and offices in all of the GCC countries.
"Our international presence is not something new to us, but we are going to convert some of these undeveloped market opportunities into selling activities, and that will probably become a reality by the next ADIPEC," he concluded.
