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News in brief

01 March 2021

Bawan scraps plan to merge two subsidiaries

Saudi-based Bawan Company, a leading provider of engineering and consulting services, has announced that it has cancelled plans to merge two of its subsidiaries – United Transformers Electric Company and United Technology of Electric Substations and Switchgears Company – following a re-evaluation which found the move unfeasible.

A key player in the region, Bawan is involved in the trading and manufacture of building materials, industrial investment, financial management and administration, and other industrial services. The Saudi group had announced the merger of the two subsidiaries which manufacture transformers and switchgear and package substations, respectively, in June 2019. The company has a 85.5 per cent stake in each of these firms.

In its statement to the Saudi bourse Tadawul, Bawan said the decision was taken after a re-evaluation of the merger by the company management, in coordination with the shareholders, found it unfeasible.

Following this, the shareholders in the parties to the merger agreement issued the necessary resolutions to cancel the merger, and the necessary approvals were obtained from the Ministry of Commerce, it added.

Halliburton lands Kuwait Oil digital solutions contract

Halliburton Company has announced it was awarded a contract from Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) to collaborate on its digital transformation journey through the maintenance and expansion of digital solutions for its North Kuwait asset.

It will allow KOC to accelerate their data-to-decisions cycle by designing and operating digital twins of the field to automate work processes, supported by DecisionSpace 365, a cloud-based subscription service for E&P applications.

Built on an open architecture, DecisionSpace 365 will help KOC engineers model, optimise and deploy intelligent work processes to plan, forecast and optimise production and asset operations.

The open architecture integrates Halliburton and third-party technologies to enhance operational performance and increase ultimate recovery.

Nagaraj Srinivasan, Senior Vice President (Landmark) at Halliburton Digital Solutions and Consulting, says: “We are excited to collaborate with KOC on their digital transformation initiatives and build on our previous work to increase reservoir recovery and production. By using cloud computing, IoT and real-time technologies to drive new ways of working, we can improve production planning, scheduling and enable virtual and autonomous reservoir optimisation.”

Johnson Arabia boosts AWP fleet, opens second unit in Oman

Johnson Arabia, a leading aerial work platforms company in the GCC that boasts over 250 mobile cranes and 700 aerial work platforms (AWP), has expanded its work platforms fleet with the launch of its second branch in Oman.

Johnson Arabia is awaiting the delivery of 112 machines to complement its existing fleet across the group. This investment by Johnson Arabia strengthens the company’s ambition to get to fleet size of 1,000 machines by the close of 2021.

The majority of purchased machines will be delivered to their new location in Muscat, an existing location in Duqm and the remaining units will be delivered to it headquarters in the UAE, to help meet the growing demand.

The up-to-date models manufactured by both JLG and Genie were due to start arriving last month and delivered in batches over the next three months.

Workshop Manager Paul Farrell says the growth in Oman was mainly driven by the fact that Johnson Arabia had already been a well-known name in the rental industry there for about 10 years for cranes and has now started to focus equally on their AWP supply too.

To further help with this expansion, Johnson Arabia has boosted its sales and operations team there and is also exploring new project avenues, specifically in oil and gas sector.

National Marine Dredging completes merger with Abu Dhabi NPCC

UAE-based National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) has announced the legal completion of its merger with top Emirati engineering and construction group, National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), thus creating a major engineering and construction powerhouse.

The official announcement from NMDC comes following the shareholders’ vote on December 14 and the receipt of all required regulatory approvals. This merger will pave way for the creation of one of the leading integrated oil and gas and marine services EPC players, with an established footprint across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) and South Asia regions.

By creating a single platform, the combined group is ideally positioned to capture growth opportunities in the UAE and in key regional markets, with strong capabilities across the value chain to support future expansion plans.