FUGRO has been an integral part of the Middle East oil and gas industry for more than 40 years. Today it proudly claims to have some of the region’s most well-known names as its clients.

Working at each stage of operations from conceptual to resource exploration, infrastructure development, production and transportation, the global group – headquartered in The Netherland – has long been a leader in providing high quality data and services for safe, reliable and efficient operations of the Middle East’s oil and gas industry.

“We are well known for providing a full range of survey, subsea and geotechnical services across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region,” explains Mike Dravitzki, regional director, Survey and Subsea Divisions, Middle East, India and the Caspian area.

“Our work is focused on national and international oil companies, many engineering and civil contractors as well as key government departments. With more than 2,000 staff from 30 nationalities permanently based in the region we are able to provide the right technical solution using our local team.

“High-accuracy positioning, seabed mapping, weather and environmental services, geotechnical sampling, engineering analysis and high-accuracy DGPS are all in high demand,” he adds.

Fugro also provides complete diving and remotely-operated vehicles (ROV) support services from its operational bases in Abu Dhabi and Dammam.

Most recently, Fugro has taken delivery of the state-of-the-art Fugro Proteus vessel to its regional fleet of vessels. Drawing upon Fugro’s experience and understanding of the region’s needs, the Fugro Proteus was specially built for the unique environment of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf.

This new generation vessel is designed for a variety of survey and inspection duties including light geotechnical work, environmental baseline surveys, monitoring and inspection, and moon pool deployments. Diesel electric propulsion delivers excellent economy at all speeds, Dravitzki says. The Fugro Proteus complements Fugro’s other vessels in the region, the Fugro Adventurer a DP2 vessel deployed on a full range of geotechnical services and the Fugro Explorer with deepwater capabilities.

Fugro is regularly in the news around the world, with recent examples seeing the company featured because of its indirect involvement in an oil discovery in Australia and as a result of a recently acquired ocean bottom cable seismic contract in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fugro’s stake in a major oil find in Australia is unusual in the company’s history, and is the result of an alliance with Finder Exploration. The alliance sees Fugro having a 50 per cent profit-sharing agreement with Finder, which in turn is a 20 per cent equity holder in the exploration permit.

As part of this alliance, Fugro provides Perth-based Finder with support for selected exploration activities as part of building up Fugro’s multi-client activities. In return, Fugro receives a profit share in the projects in which it participates with Finder, further demonstrating its intimate knowledge of the oil and gas industry.

The ocean bottom cable (OBC) seismic contract is a more usual form of involvement for Fugro, and saw Pemex announcing the award of a contract valued at around $200 million for OBC 3D-4C seismic work. This is to take place in one of the Pemex’s most important producing areas, the Ku Maloob Zaap oil field and the light crude oil fields of the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico. The acquisition will be conducted by Seabed Geosolutions – the joint venture that CGG and Fugro incorporated in early 2013 to handle all seabed-related seismic acquisitions.

Fugro is confident of the outlook for the Gulf markets. Says Dravitzki: “Currently the biggest demand for our services is from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE where we have a broad range of projects underway. We are also very confident that the GCC region as a whole is set for extensive growth over the next five to 10 years. The continued expansion in oil and gas fields, coupled with increased civil infrastructure will undoubtedly require significant use of Fugro services drawing on our expertise in terms of earth and engineering data services, from project preparation through to data acquisition, processing, analysis and interpretation, reporting and consulting.”

Fugro looks forward to remaining a key part of the GCC’s oil and gas industry, and will continue to provide the people, equipment, expertise and technology that support the exploration, development, production and transportation of the world’s natural resources.