IN line with its commitment to expand and strengthen its operations in the Gulf region, 3M Gulf has announced the establishment of a new mining, oil and gas solutions division which will primarily oversee the markets of the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.

With the introduction of the new division, 3M Gulf will now have one customer-facing organisation to serve the region’s booming oil and gas industry. It will also help the company to increase its penetration by providing better exposure for its 10,000 applicable products and solutions, a company release says.

In order to spearhead this new division, 3M has appointed Wajid Abbas, who used to head 3M operations in Qatar, as the leader of 3M Gulf Oil and Gas Division.

Commenting on the introduction of the new business division, Wajid Abbas says: “The Gulf region is a top priority market for 3M globally and the launch of our new mining, oil and gas solutions division complements our objective to accelerate our penetration and expansion in the region by leveraging the enormous opportunities that it offers.

“Our market-focused efforts give 3M a coordinated approach to directly reach out to the oil and gas customers and help them obtain products that can withstand the harsh environments and lifecycle management challenges the oil and gas industry faces.”

The Middle East oil and gas industry accounts for over 26 per cent of global output, with markets of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar alone forming over 16 per cent of global production. The industry also contributes by over 35 per cent to the four countries’ GDPs, an incentive which encourages the local governments to pump huge investments into this dynamic sector.

For more than 60 years in the oil and gas industry, 3M has built a massive portfolio of product solutions which offer more than 10,000 products across varied industries, designed to protect and extend the life of critical assets.

3M’s solutions address the needs of companies in all three sectors of the oil and gas industry: upstream, midstream and downstream.