Furmanite International, the global technical services company offering both online and shutdown services, has underlined its commitment to the Middle East region with the opening of its new office in Bahrain.

“For many years we have been doing business in this part of the world through a combination of licencees and ad hoc visits,” said Paul Brown, Managing Director of Furmanite.
“Our Bahrain office has been established to help ensure the standards and quality of our services. We decided to open our office in Bahrain as we had no licencee in the Kingdom and because of its strategic position to Saudi Arabia.”
The Bahrain office, with a total of six staff, will provide support to Furmanite’s licencees in the area as well as developing new business from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
“We offer multi-skilled technicians in 13 service and product areas and these are made up of individuals who have undergone intensive training in the UK,” said Paul Smith, Business Manager. “By the end of the year we hope the team will include two Bahraini engineers.”
Whilst Furmanite does acknowledge that there is competition in a number of their fields of service, the company considers itself as a one-stop-shop providing a bundle package which no other company can provide.
“Through our core teams we provide customers with a more efficient, quality service and this creates value for the customer by reducing his overall cost.”
Furmanite provides both online as well as shutdown services. For example, the company founded leak sealing in 1929 and today offers an online service which is considered to be the industry leader.
“Our promotion talks about products being “furmanited” as our name has become the generic name for the leak sealing process in the industry,” said Mike Tucker, Sales Director for the region. “Today we say that if it’s not Furmanite, it’s not Furmanited.”
Furmanite has also acquired pipeline intervention and valve maintenance capabilities through the acquisition of the service business of IPSCO.
“With the element of risk which exists, the online service we provide has to be right and we believe no company offers the breadth and depth of service,” said Smith. “Leak sealing on its own can be particularly dangerous and we pride ourselves in providing suitably qualified and experienced personnel.”
In fact Furmanite ensures that all their technicians operating in the Middle East have not only undergone rigorous training but also undergo a vocational qualification programme. “We believe in simple values,” said Brown. “Safety, quality, on time and efficiency in that particular hierarchy. Nothing compromises safety or quality and efficiency is then a by product.”
However Smith believes that the success of Furmanite is built on a combination of people, process and technology.
“Other companies may well have similar technology but Furmanite relies on the integration of technology with both the process and the people,” said Smith.
Industry reaction to the opening of the new Bahrain office, which has already been accredited with IS09002, has been positive although the company is being cautious in terms of direct business.
“We will be introducing our services in a slow and methodical way so as not to raise expectations. We are also here to support our licencees as well as to pursue business in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia,” said Smith.
“We eventually want to follow the model we have in the UK for clients where we will bring in core teams and help manage plants and assets becoming a part of the customers’ business.”
Furmanite is a global organisation with a turnover of $300 million.
Furmanite offers a range of specialist onsite and online technical services, designed to help operators in the oil and gas, refining and petrochem industries (as well as power and other industries), keep their assets operating and earning efficiently and avoid unscheduled downtime.
These services include online pressure leak sealing, onsite machining, Trevitest online safety/relief valve testing, and hot tapping, among others which with its Bahrain office now in operation Furmanite can offer with the assurance of maximum safety and quality, to the high standards for which it is renowned.
Furmanite’s Bahrain office is the company’s first direct representation in the Middle East, and has been set up as a result of customer demand.
The office is headed up by Manager Khairy Ahmed BSc Hons, a qualified mechanical engineer with an extensive background with Furmanite and indepth knowledge of the Middle East market, having worked for over 10 years for one of the company’s licensees in the region.
The new Bahrain office facilities include a workshop, administrative offices and meeting rooms. Equipment needed to deliver Furmanite’s range of services is held there ready for rapid deployment as required by the local team of highly qualified Furmanite technicians.
Additionally, a number of Furmanite services that were not previously available in Bahrain, or only to a limited extent, will now be readily accessible.
Among these, composite repair technology, pipeline intervention (hot tapping, line stopping and pipe freezing) and FurmaSeal leak sealing clamps are expected to attract particular attention.
The Furmanite Bahrain office is in Sitra Industrial Area.