IHS, one of the leading providers of critical technical information, decision-support tools and related services worldwide to customers in the energy, defence, aerospace, construction, electronics and automotive industries, plans to expand its presence in the Middle East.

The region, particularly the national oil companies, offer good business opportunities for us, says Ron Mobed, president and  chief operating officer, Energy Segment, IHS. 
Its business in the region has more than doubled over the past two years prompting the company to review its future strategies.
Mobed was in Dubai recently along with other senior officials to discuss the company’s future flans for the region.
“This region, specially national oil companies offer good opportunities for us and according to our anaylists two third of world energy demand growth will come from the Asia region, including the Middle East,” he says. 
“We are very well embedded in both operational and strategic thinking. The Middle East is a huge energy source as well as consumer. It is also becoming a huge investor in overseas energy market.
“We have been operating in the region for over six years and have a large footprint here. Now we are looking at expanding our presence. We are looking at what additional expansion plans we should be making.”
The US based company has been in business for over 40 years and its main activity is to provide information services.
“We have developed a comprehensive collection of technical information that is highly relevant to the industries we serve,” says Mobed.
“Our decision-support tools enable our customers to quickly and easily search and analyse this information and integrate it into their work flows. Our operational, research, and strategic advisory services combine this information and these tools with our extensive industry expertise to meet the needs of our customers.
“Our customers rely on these offerings to facilitate decision making, support key processes, and improve productivity.”
The Company is organised into two operating segments, namely energy and engineering.
The energy segment provides a comprehensive suite of information services to the oil and gas sector – from well and production data to economic and consulting products and services.
The Energy segment services and solutions support oil and gas professionals as they evaluate subsurface issues related to geology, technology, reserves potential and as they assess the economic impact of political, fiscal and environmental risks.
The company helps its customers make informed decisions quickly, while managing and understanding the risks associated with finding and producing oil and gas. With 17 technical teams positioned worldwide and proficiencies in 42 languages, IHS covers the petroleum industry in over 90 countries.
In the last seven years, the energy part of IHS activity has grown to more than half the total business. The company attributed the growth to rapidly expanding energy sector as well as its products.
“We are confident of the product range and offerings we put together in the last few years specially the combination of research and foundational data. The services we provide have high value in the market as its very unique and rooted in the very solid foundational data and supplemented by research,” he says. 
IHS’ other segment – the engineering segment - develops and implements engineering, technical and regulatory information solutions for customers in over 100 countries covering various sectors like the  automotive, aviation/aerospace, construction, energy, government/department of defence, electronics/telecommunications, petrochemical and utilities.
“We will continue to expand our offerings further to include knowledge-based solutions and industry insight that provide strategic benefit to our customers around the world,” he concludes.
By Mridula Bhattacharya