ION is aiming to increase its presence in the region with the recent opening of its new international headquarters in Jebel Ali, Dubai.
ION's new President and CEO, Brian Hanson, spoke exclusively to Oil Review Middle East about the company's Middle East strategy at the official opening of the headquarters.
Proximity to customers
Hanson commented, "The Middle East is a very important market for us, and this office provides us with proximity to NOCs, especially those who are really looking at innovative technologies, and the important marine and land contractors, such as Polarcus. We are now supporting them from our new headquarters in the region."
"One of the main reasons we opened an international headquarters here was proximity to customers. We can really touch a lot of customers out of Dubai, and not just in the Middle East. This is a great launching spot for India, Asia and Europe," added Hanson.
Middle East Technical Forum
The office opening in February also overlapped with ION's annual Middle East Technical Forum held in Abu Dhabi. This was the sixth forum that ION held in the Middle East for industry leaders to discuss and debate today's toughest E&P challenges.
"The seminar went very well and was attended by around 75 delegates – representing regional NOCs including ADMA, ADNOC, ZADCO, PDO, and local and international contractors. It provided a great cross section of papers, everything from the equipment side to new processing techniques. It was very much appreciated by local constituents that we brought the forum to the Middle East," Hanson commented.
Challenges of oil and gas industry
Hanson concluded, "Among the many challenges the oil and gas industry faces in the Middle East today are imaging deep gas reservoirs and improving the productivity of existing fields through higher-resolution images and a better understanding of the reservoir characteristics."
To help them overcome these challenges, we are rolling out new technologies not only from ION but also from INOVA (our land equipment JV company with BGP). There is a tremendous opportunity to have these new technologies adopted in the Middle East, and this will be our main thrust this year."
