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I N N O V AT I O N S • O C T O B E R -
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4
MIDDLE EAST
|
AFRICA
ASIA PACI F IC
Regional Commentary from the Industry's Foremost Experts
Geopolitical risk, social unrest, and pricing volatility are terms often associated with
the Middle East/Africa (MEA) region, but so is immense economic growth. Spreading from
the Maghreb and South Africa to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Iraq, MEA is a region of complex
and interrelated cultures, race, politics, languages and religion. Although diverse, the
region shares many common themes. One such theme: countries with higher break-even
costs are struggling to re-invest in major projects and development (i.e., Algeria, Libya and
Bahrain), while those with lower break-even costs are experiencing growth, at least from a
cash flow perspective (i.e., Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia).
Despite the unique challenges of MEA — including governmental influence over policy,
surging populations, and a transition to private sector growth and stability — oil and gas investments in the cash-rich
countries continue to increase.
Due to the potential for such significant growth in energy infrastructure and transportation, MEA will remain attractive to
both foreign and domestic investors for many years to come.
Asia Pacific is a vast area area comprised of more than 40 countries, including India,
Australia, and China. Of these regions, China and India have the largest, most complicated
and fastest growing pipeline networks, each with more than 50,000 km (31,000 miles) of
transmission lines, several thousand kilometers of upstream gathering lines, and several
more thousand kilometers of distribution.
Although one of the most energy-hungry areas of the world, Asia Pacific (with the
exception of Australia) operates with less governmental focus on pipeline integrity and
regulation enforcement than most. Operators are often their own regulators, responsible
for developing and executing cleaning and inline inspection programs as they see fit.
However, even as government regulation is less in this region, operators across the globe share the economic pressure to avoid
shutdown. This being so, Asia Pacific operators must increasingly rely on hot tapping and isolation technologies, both on and
offshore, to maintain flow. Malaysia and Australia, in particular, depend on specialized remote controlled isolation technologies
for their unique offshore valve replacements. This growing need for pipeline expertise is driving operators to develop or adopt
best practices and to partner with pipeline service providers to meet the challenges of increasing energy demand.
Juan Chacin
REGIONAL DIRECTOR, T.D. WILLIAMSON
Danny Haykal
REGIONAL DIRECTOR, T.D. WILLIAMSON
• Saudi Arabia
— Safania offshore field development,
Jizan refinery (under execution), Ras Tanura refinery
(under bidding), Midyan gas field (just awarded)
• Iraq
— increasing production to more than 12 million
bpd over the next decade
• Libya
— looking toward a licensing round for
international oil firms in the next few years
• Algeria
— focusing on increased gas production to
supply gas-hungry Europe
• UAE
— expanding gas production at the Shah and Bab
fields to cope with increasing industrial demand, and
looking to increase offshore oil production, such as at
the Umm Lulu field