Alturki Holding’s oil and gas subsidiary Sawafi has invested in Vulcan, a UK based engineered solutions provider for well comple-tion within the upstream sector, to boost localisation in the Kingdom.
Vulcan offers innovation and application solutions built to withstand the world’s most demanding wells, and holds multiple patents and trademarks.
Rami Alturki, President and CEO, Alturki Holding and Chairman of Sawafi, notes the investment is part of the company’s technolo-gy localisation roadmap, which aims to create new capabilities and opportunities within the Kingdom’s upstream sector.
“As part of our diversification strategy, we continue investing in new technology enablers, exploring more markets, and adding new products and services to our portfolio. Investing in Vulcan will further maximise the efficiencies of local upstream sector and support the Kingdom’s leadership in the global energy industry,” he adds.
The investment will improve Sawafi’s technical and R&D capabilities by giving it access to an R&D centre in Aberdeen.
Coupled with Sawafi’s recent acquisition of US-based directional drilling company Newsco (with its R&D centre in Houston), the acquisition of Vulcan expands Sawafi’s R&D footprint to cover North Amercia, North Sea and Saudi Arabia.
The two energy-driven knowledge bases will be connected with Dhahran Techno Valley R&D facility.
Furthermore, the localisation of Vulcan’s extensive engineering knowledge and technological prowess within the completions mar-ket will support Sawafi’s alignment with Aramco’s iktva programme, and help it deliver on its ambition of driving domestic value cre-ation and diversification in the Kingdom.
Tarek Kachouri, MD Sawafi, says the strategic investment in Vulcan will strengthen the market position of Sawafi and further build upon the company’s long-term vision of enhancing the self-sufficiency of the upstream sector.
According to Kachouri, Vulcan’s advanced completion products will find high applicability in the increasingly complex wellbore ar-chitecture being deployed by Aramco to solve arising challenges.
“Protected by a comprehensive portfolio of patents, the Vulcan products are technically differentiated, advanced, and applicable to all types of wells. The products are well-positioned to capitalize on Aramco’s direction to drill more complex wells such as offshore gas, HTHP, deviated, and multi-lateral,” he adds.
Ian Kirk Vulcan General Manager said: “Vulcan looks forward to this exciting partnership with Sawafi. Its investment will help Vul-can fast-track the company’s growth in keeping with the world’s demand for energy. Our team has always led the way for the last 30 years with its unique designs and technology along with professional after sales service. The Company was founded by a team of industry professionals with extensive careers specialising in designing and manufacturing engineered solutions for the completions market within the global Oil and Gas Industry.”