Hunting PLC looks to Middle East expansion

Precision engineering group Hunting PLC has announced it is looking to grow its presence in the Middle East with the construction of a small laboratory in the UAE to service clients in the Eastern Hemisphere

This will enable sample lead time and overall analysis time to decrease as a result of closer proximity to the customer, according to the company, which has operations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia as well as other global locations. Hunting sees the Middle East as a key area of growth, given the tender activity across the region, according to its 2024 Results statement.

Hunting’s recent announcement of the acquisition of the Organic Oil Recovery (“OOR”) enhanced oil recovery technology from its founding shareholders, for US$17.5mn, also has the potential to boost this expansion, as it will allow the company to accelerate commercialisation across North America and the rest of the world. Hunting will pay a 15% royalty to the sellers on revenue earned for a period of 15 years, post-completion.

The Organic Oil Recovery process is a proven and innovative enhanced oil recovery technology which optimises reservoir performance and recovery rates.

This breakthrough technology, which manipulates the resident down-hole ecology, offers operators an easy-to-deploy advanced tertiary oil recovery resulting in increased production and the lowering of lifting costs. It also lowers the water cut during end-of-life production, lowers hydrogen sulphide levels in production offtake and extends the life and increases the economic returns of a producing field.

Field trials of the OOR technology are currently underway with numerous blue-chip exploration and production companies across the Middle East, North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Over 340 successful applications onshore and offshore have been reported, with an overall success rate of 94%.

Hunting has secured up to US$60mn of orders from operators in the UK North Sea, with a strong pipeline of opportunities likely to be secured internationally in the coming years, as the oil and gas industry becomes aware of the production benefits of the solution.

Given the prevalence of mature fields in the Middle East, and the challenges of trapped oil, steep production declines, excessive water production and H2S which the OOR technology addresses, there would appear to be strong potential for expansion in the region.

Jim Johnson, chief executive of Hunting, said, “Following the acquisition of this exciting business, Hunting now has the ability to deploy this remarkable technology globally. The technology is currently being evaluated by many blue-chip customers, with the benefits to the operator clear. For Hunting, the business will be margin accretive and strongly position the company to reach its Hunting 2030 Strategy targets in the medium term as commercialisation accelerates.”