More than thirty years after Comsip Al A'Ali carried out its first contract at Bapco, the company has become one of the leading companies in Bahrain for electrical and instrumentation, engineering and contracting services in the oil and gas industry.
Comsip Al A'Ali has been heavily involved in Bapco's recent modernisation projects, providing services for the in-line blending project, the kero-merox facility, the GCU wet gas compressor, and for the modernisation of instrumentation and control facilities in the low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) and fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) complexes, said Comsip Al A'Ali managing director Albrecht Hahn.
''We have been involved in all aspects of the Bapco modernisation programme since the start,'' he said. ''And now we are hoping to play a major role in the upcoming Low Sulphur Diesel Project,'' he added.
For the $32 million LSFO and FCCU project, Comsip Al A'Ali is working with its foreign partner Cegelec, a French European leader in the contracting business and specialised in the oil and gas industry.
Comsip Al A'Ali has already carried out detailed engineering for the LSFO unit and the project has now entered into the construction phase. The scope of work includes a new blast-resistant control building; work stations; refurbishment of old control rooms; installation of new field instruments, retrofitting and changing over the outdated parts; removal of old control system and redundant field instruments; procurement and installation of the electrical system in the North Process Control Building (NPCB) and detailed engineering of the electrical and instrumentation system.
Installed equipment included in the contract covers DCS consoles, interface cabinets, low voltage switchgear panels, transformers, a fire alarm system in NPCB and a fiber optic communication system.
The project will be commissioned in phases. The new control building will be completed by this summer while the LSFO is expected to be commissioned by the end of this year, said Hahn. In addition, the FCCU is expected to be commissioned and completed by July 2004. The commissioning phases of the LSFO and FCCU will be carried out in a ''hot cut over'' manner to prevent production losses due to refinery down time.
For the in-line blending project, Comsip Al A'Ali provided detailed engineering for the field and control room installation, procurement of bulk materials, calibration and commissioning assistance for contractor Japan Gasoline Corporation (JGC) on the electrical and instrumentation part of the project. The $1.7 million project - which was completed ahead of schedule in July 2000 - included the installation of an advanced control system, advanced analyser system, modelling software, data highway for scheduling and optimisation system, contract management and instrumentation.
For the Kero-Merox facility - which was completed in August 2001 - Comsip Al A'Ali was again subcontracted by JGC to install DCS consoles, low voltage switchgear, marshalling cabinets, field instrumentation, a 500 kVA transformer, a battery charger and power and control cable. Comsip Al A'Ali also provided all technical and manpower assistance during pre-commissioning and loop check.
Comsip Al A'Ali has established a strong reputation for quality work performed within schedule, and Hahn expects this to carry on throughout the various projects in the Bapco modernisation.
The company is also expanding to meet the requirements of the modernisation.
''Now that construction activities have picked up at Bapco and other projects in Bahrain, we are taking on an additional 180 staff, 60 of which are Bahraini,'' said Hahn. With the new recruits, the total number of staff at Comsip Al A'Ali will reach 560 (of which 170 are Bahraini) within a few weeks, the largest staff level the company has seen to date.
''With the additional staff which is now available we are well prepared to become involved in the major part of the Bapco upgrade (low sulphur diesel project),'' Hahn explained.
By employing more staff, the challenge for Comsip Al A'Ali will now be to assimilate them into the company's systems, as well as integrating them into the operating systems of clients such as Bapco.
''All of the training is performed in-house, and the training programmes are designed to include the staff into the working streams as quickly as possible,'' Hahn explained.
Comsip Al A'Ali's relationship with Bapco is seen by Hahn as more of a partnership, and the state company provides a sizeable share of Comsip Al A'Ali's business at times. ''Since 1971, we have worked on all the major jobs in Bapco. We have an excellent working relationship and have a term contract for our services which has been renewed for the last 20 years.
''The quality of our work is very much appreciated by Bapco and this is another reason for our successful track record there,'' Hahn commented.
Comsip Al A'Ali is structured to implement all aspects of turnkey electrical and instrumentation works involving design, engineering, procurement, installation, calibration, testing, commissioning, start-up assistance and maintenance. In addition to the oil and gas sector, Comsip Al A'Ali's activities also cover the power generation, water distribution and downstream industrial sectors.
The company has performed major work on the Hidd Power and Desalination Plant project phase I and received the order for the phase II extension. Comsip Al A'Ali has also undertaken major projects in the past at Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) where the company maintains a strong permanent presence. Comsip Al A'Ali's client list also includes GPIC, for which the company has successfully executed major shutdowns apart from providing specialised manpower services.
One of Comsip Al A'Ali's key strengths is its ability to offer competence at all stages of a project, from engineering to project management, specialised installation and supervision, up to the maintenance for a project.
Another major asset for Comsip Al A'Ali is its status as a joint venture with French contracting group Cegelec and Bahrain's Ahmed Mansoor Al A'Ali group of companies, a combination which offers international expertise with local project-specific installation knowledge.
Cegelec employs some 26,000 people in more than 200 offices throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
''We are now actively bidding for projects, together with our Cegelec colleagues in Paris, for major contracts in the Gulf region, and we are looking to capitalise on Cegelec's experience on executing big jobs,'' said Hahn. ''For our part, Comsip Al A'Ali has the know-how to provide the local logistics needed for a project, including the ability to mobilise people in the short timescales often required in the Gulf region,'' he added.
A common theme throughout Comsip Al A'Ali's operations is its commitment to safety. The company now has three full-time safety officers based in Bahrain, one of which is dedicated solely to Bapco. The company maintains all preventive safety measures to provide complete safety to its personnel. Quality is vital to its reputation, too, and Comsip Al A'Ali was the first company in Bahrain to be certified to ISO9002 Quality Management System in 1993.
''Our safety record in Bapco is very good,'' Hahn emphasised. ''In June/July 2001, for instance, during an FCCU shutdown we had 120 staff on the project, which was completed ahead of schedule without a lost time accident,'' he said.
Hahn joined Comsip Al A'Ali in 1999 and in this time he has seen the company expand. ''We have doubled our office space, a reflection of the growth in our business. We have also achieved records in turnover, number of staff etc.''
With the rapid industrial development of Bahrain, Hahn says that Comsip Al A'Ali is now well-placed to offer its wide range of quality services to the local market for the foreseeable future, beyond 2005 when the current Bapco upgrades will be completed.
''We are also keeping an eye on the major expansion investments at Alba, where immense work will come up in the not too distant future. In addition, we are bidding for jobs in Qatar and Oman and elsewhere in the GCC, where we are confident of securing business at some stage,'' Hahn said.
''I strongly believe that there is a market in the GCC for our high quality work on industrial installations, where high standards are the key issue ahead of price,'' he added.
The company says that it takes pride in being an active participant in the ongoing progress and developments in Bahrain, and looks forward to continuing this contribution.
