OSSO, Aberdeen-headquartered provider of specialist fluid temperature control and separation solutions, is expanding globally – and the Middle East is a key focus. Oil Review Middle East spoke to James Scullion, OSSO’s CEO, to find out more
OSSO is pursuing an aggressive global growth strategy, seeing burgeoning demand for its separation and heat transfer solutions from the energy and industrial markets. A move to larger headquarters, the appointment of new hires across the Middle East and Europe and the signing of new partnerships will enable the company to expand its fleet and augment its global presence.
In November 2021, the company appointed a new Middle East manager in Dubai to spearhead its regional growth strategy, and plans to significantly grow its Middle East footprint in the next three years.
As part of this expansion, OSSO has signed a partnership with Medra Arabia, the national diversified oil and gas service company in Saudi Arabia. It is the company’s second in the Middle East, where the company has had a partnership with Sigma in Abu Dhabi for several years now.
“We’ve been operating in the Middle East for a number of years, but what has become increasingly apparent is that local content in the region is becoming more and more important, and rightly so,” says Scullion. “So, it’s a key part of our strategy to ensure we have local partners within the key areas where we know our technology offering is most applicable.”
Through the agreement with Medra Arabia, OSSO is providing clients with direct access to its rental fleet of equipment, along with rig site support and heat transfer solutions. The partnership enables OSSO to significantly reduce turnaround time of equipment and personnel – providing a greater economic support structure with added expert local knowledge. The partnership provides additional on the ground technical support to customers. Additionally, OSSO will provide in-country training on its technology and equipment, further upskilling Medra’s in-field engineers in Dammam, enabling additional In-Kingdom Value Addition in line with Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision.
Scullion explains that demand for the company’s technologies, which offer benefits both in terms of rig efficiencies and safety, is growing.
“With higher temperature and deeper gas wells in the region, downhole temperatures are increasing significantly, which wears out a lot of the downhole components. We’re providing customers with a solution that enables them to actively manage the mud and downhole well temperatures, to mitigate risks, preserve tool life, and avoid any costly delays due to thermal fracturing.”
Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas sector offers huge business potential, particularly given Aramco’s recent announcement that it is ramping up capital expenditure to US$40-50bn for 2022 to boost production.
“We see the Saudi market as buoyant, with a lot of drilling coming up,” says Scullion. “Of course, there are challenges - drilling plans can be fluid and change quite regularly - but there is a good pipeline of drilling coming forward. Furthermore, the market is pushing for newer solutions like ours, that offer efficiencies in rig times and contribute to a reduction in environmental impact, which is another area we’re addressing.
“So yes, we see potential for expansion in Saudi; a key part of our growth strategy is to help the oil and gas market become as efficient as possible and using our mud cooling technologies to help with rig efficiencies is a key part of that.
“Moving forward, we’re really pushing to develop the environmental aspect, minimising the inevitable environmental footprint of oil and gas drilling and upstream operations as far as possible. Anything we can do to reduce waste streams on site, treat and reuse other oil products is a key focus for us. That’s where we see the opportunity with Medra, and that’s where we’ll require even more skilled individuals to operate that equipment and service it in country efficiently."
You can find out more about OSSO here
