AYTB (Al Yusr Townsend and Bottum Company) has been an integral part of the industrial landscape of Saudi Arabia for more than 30 years providing single source responsibility for a diversified range of specialist engineering, contracting and logistical support services to the petrochemical, oil and gas and industrial sectors of the kingdom.

Headquartered in the industrial powerhouse of Jubail Industrial City since 1979, AYTB also has offices and facilities in Yanbu and in Qatar. AYTB represents a multi-million- dollar business.

AYTB is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company with ASME and National Board authorisation, a fully integrated organisation with extensive in-house capabilities providing industrial and technical support for engineering, fabrication, construction, operation and maintenance, industrial cleaning, plant shutdown and turnarounds as well as facility/compound/camp management and catering services. The company owns and maintains an extensive range of construction machinery and equipment in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

From its inception, AYTB has specialised in operations and maintenance (O&M) including mechanical, electrical and instrumentation. A substantial number of AYTB staff is deployed on various long-term base-load maintenance contracts integrated into client organisations. These AYTB teams develop client-specific standard maintenance procedures, preventative maintenance, safety and quality assurance programmes. AYTB also provides technical and safety training on demand and also craft certifications to meet client requirements.

For industrial cleaning, AYTB covers hydro-jetting to chemical cleaning, catalyst handling and bundle pulling, utilising an array of state-of-the-art equipment. AYTB is also a leading management, construction and fabrication contractor for medium sized projects in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. AYTB’s capabilities include prefabrication of process modules for furnaces, heaters, radiant and convention coils.

A vertically integrated company, AYTB has multi-disciplinary teams with fabrication facilities and lay down yards in Jubail, Yanbu and Qatar. Its client list in Jubail Industrial City involves many of the Sabic affiliate companies and private petrochemical plants including Hadeed, Ar-Razi, Sharq, Sadaf, Safco, Petrokemya, Kemya, Ibn Zahr, Saudi Kayan as well as Tasnee, Marafiq, Chevron and Sipchem.

AYTB is also involved with Ma’aden (Saudi Arabian Mining Company) at Ras Al-Khair (formerly named Ras Al Zour), the minerals industrial city and port under fast-track development 60 km north of Jubail. Ma’aden is exploiting the mineral deposits of Saudi Arabia with a railway line under construction from the bauxite mines at Zabirah to Ras Al-Khair. The massive aluminium smelter project is scheduled for completion in 2014 with new railway connections under development to link Ras Al Khair, Jubail and Dammam.

In Yanbu, AYTB provides services to Samref, Yanpet, Yansab and many key organisations and further south on the Red Sea coast, to PetroRabigh, the Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical joint venture refinery and petrochemical plant. In Qatar, AYTB’s clients include Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Electricity and Water Company and QatarGas.

Abdulmohsen Ogaili, chief executive officer of AYTB, is a veteran of the petrochemicals and industrial sector with more than 27 years of experience in various executive levels in both Sabic and the private sector. Originally from Riyadh, Ogaili received a degree in business administration in the US returning to Saudi Arabia to join Sabic. His top-flight career led to many senior positions including CEO of Nama Chemical for eight years prior to taking the leadership position at AYTB in October 2011.

“Naturally, I bring extensive customer knowledge of the industrial sector from my experience in Sabic and Nama, operating a world-scale petrochemical facility in Jubail and managing these complex processes in a competitive environment gives me the prospective to develop customers needs based business models”. AYTB is striving towards being a benchmark of the highest criteria for different key performance indicators (KPIs), organisation systems, planning, procurement, and plant efficiencies, safety and health and environmental compliance.

“Training, career development and enhancing our human resources with particular emphasis on Saudisation is implicit in what we are seeking to achieve in AYTB,” says Ogaili.

Recruiting and developing the Saudi workforce is a key policy for AYTB with close involvement in sponsoring Saudi high school graduates in craft and vocational training programmes through various technical institutes and other educational organizations. AYTB also operates in-house the Centre for Excellence (CFE) offering skills upgrade courses to continuously enhance the knowledge and expertise of its workforce.

“Currently, we have more than 10 per cent Saudisation at AYTB and within four years our target is 20 per cent which I think is achievable by working through HR training and supervisory programmes. Education and training are key policies for Saudi Arabia and with 27 universities and many related educational institutions, equipping Saudis with the appropriate skills and expertise is vital.

“Importantly, we are also talking about changing the culture too. This is apparent in Jubail and Yanbu and across the industrial base of Saudi Arabia over the past 30 years. The work experiences drawn from the industrial cities of Jubail and Yanbu reflect a very structured environment not only with the industrial practices of shift work and workplace responsibilities that have been developed but also how well Saudis and their families have adapted to these new challenges of time management, long working hours, and emphasizing the value of work.

“AYTB is a large organisation with almost 4,000 personnel. 3,200 are based in Jubail, 500 in Yanbu and 250 in Qatar.

These are formidable resources. AYTB has a very good name in the market based on more than 30 years of experience at the highest level. Saudisation is a challenge for all companies in finding and developing the right skills for our business.

In doing business, we take a conservative approach and deliver what we promise.

At AYTB, we look for sustainable development and limit our expansion to our ability to deliver the quality technical services that we are known for with our trained staff,” he adds.

Saudi Arabia is powering ahead and witnessing massive growth in the petroleum, downstream petrochemical and industrial sectors. As well as the expansions shaping Jubail 1 and Jubail 2, the developments at Ras Al Khair are phenomenal.

In Jubail, the Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical joint venture, the Sadara Chemical Company, involves a $20 billion investment in one of the world’s largest integrated chemical facilities. This confidence in downstream growth and creating high value-added chemical products is highly significant, according to Ogaili.

“The business potential is immense in terms of providing specialist services to these plants and the industrial sector. I can see AYTB doubling its capacity in the next five years in terms of both horizontal and vertical growth to meet the increasing demand for our specialist services. This involves service requirements from new plants, plant upgrades, capacity expansion and the increasing industrialisation.

AYTB workers at a site

“The business potential is huge; at the same time, our specialist services that are built on rigorous skill sets and expertise require a long-term commitment and enhancement. I can also see AYTB growing by acquisition to ensure we have the necessary specialised knowledge and specific skills required in the medium to long-term.

“To an extent AYTB is a training institution as we have developed and brought in many specialists across our workforce all of whom are benchmarked and fully certified.

This is a continuous process of building excellence and involves partnering with our clients. AYTB traditionally has long-term relations in which our skills are aligned to client requirements.

This also involves the development of new products and specialist services to meet client demands. There are huge opportunities ahead and we are confident and adaptable to the requirements of Saudi Arabia’s and the region’s industrial landscape and look to leverage our strengths,” concludes Ogaili.