Al-Rushaid Group and Natco Group have announced a significant joint venture agreement for Saudi Arabia.

In a recent announcement, Natco Group said its subsidiary had entered into a joint venture agreement to build, market and sell process equipment and systems and related services with Al-Rushaid Petroleum Investment Company, an affiliate of the Al-Rushaid Group, a leading Saudi Arabian enterprise with extensive business operations in the energy services sector.
Natco chairman and CEO John Clarke said: “This is a significant step for Natco in our pursuit of technology and process equipment deployment to the largest oil producing market in the world. Our alignment with the Al-Rushaid Group establishes a relationship with a world renowned partner with significant capabilities in the Kingdom, including engineering, manufacturing, construction, drilling and market presence.”
Sheikh Abdullah Al Rushaid said: “We are delighted to partner with Natco in the Kingdom.
“We selected Natco as a partner due to its recognised leadership in process technology and equipment manufacturing. The Saudi Arabian market is large and complex and represents a significant opportunity to apply technology to various industry sectors.”
The joint venture agreement includes the construction of a new, dedicated vessel manufacturing facility within Al Rushaid’s new industrial complex in Jubail.
The construction of the facility is expected to be completed by year-end 2008.
The facility will have the capability to manufacture pressure vessels for the upstream, downstream and petrochemical markets.
In addition, the venture will have the capability to deliver skidded packages incorporating Natco production processing technologies.
Clarke added: “We believe that establishing a local presence in the Kingdom with a substantial partner will accelerate our ability to penetrate this important world market. When the new facility is completed and the joint venture operation becomes fully staffed, we expect that sales to both new build and retrofit markets will be significant. We are encouraged by the support of the Saudi government, Saudi Aramco, Sabic and other clients of local manufacturing initiatives.”
Clarke also said: “While we expect to focus first on debottlenecking opportunities and sales of crude oil desalting and dehydration equipment, in time, we would expect to deploy proprietary solutions for produced water treatment systems, seawater injection and ultimately CO2 membranes for enhanced oil recovery.”
Natco Group is a leading provider of wellhead process equipment, systems and services used in the production of oil and gas.
Natco has designed, manufactured and marketed production equipment and services for over 80 years.
Natco production equipment is used onshore and offshore in most major oil and gas producing regions of the world.
Al-Rushaid Group has built its reputation over 30 years by providing advanced products and services for many of the most challenging applications in the oil and gas industry.
A leader in the provision of applied technologies and specialist services, Al-Rushaid Group provides the whole process from upstream, midstream to downstream for the petroleum sector.
Al-Rushaid Group has partnered with the world’s top companies to provide the best technology, products and services.
Natco Group operates research and development facilities in the US, Canada and the UK bringing the best available technology to the oil and gas market.
This comprises one of the largest and most innovative portfolios of compact oil, gas and water treatment technologies available.
In addition, via its laboratory test loops or via CFD analysis, the company is able to simulate field conditions in order to tailor unique solutions to difficult problems.
Natco Group companies have been at the forefront of process systems supplies for over 75 years and, through product and project management innovation, continue to be the market leader.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a sophisticated mathematical analysis technique used for predicting the behaviour of fluid in the flow field of interest, heat and mass transfer (eg precipitation, dissolution), phase change (eg melting, freezing, boiling), chemical reaction (eg combustion), mechanical movement (eg motion of piston, fans and impeller), and even the stresses or deformation of related solid structures.
Over the years, Natco has acquired comprehensive knowledge for the optimisation of designs and process efficiencies in oil and gas related equipment.
CFD studies can provide superior visualisation that would not otherwise be available through conventional laboratory experiments.
Consequently, better and faster development (or analysis) will lead to shorter design cycles and compress the time between the conceptual stage and field implementation.
This will clearly be advantageous in the diagnosis and troubleshooting of existing equipment, evaluating retrofit designs, and hence minimising down time.
Most importantly, it is apparent that process optimisation will result in a substantial saving of time and expense.

Electrostatic Dehydrators and desalters
TriVolt and TriVoltmax: The TriVolt Design is typically used for throughput in excess of 50,000 barrels per day.
With over 40 years experience of designing and supplying process equipment to the world’s oil and gas markets,
Natco continues to be one of the premier choices. Crude oil at the wellhead consists of a wellstream containing oil, dissolved water, dissolves salts, gas and sediment in varying quantities.
 Natco’s unique experience is in the design and supply of process equipment to separate the wellstream into its component phases and then treat each phase.
Natco’s process can remove unwanted salts and water from the oil stream, produce a stabilised crude oil and condition the gas and effluent water allowing them to be disposed of or used in other ways, for example, fuel or re-injection.
A typical process train would include phase separators and possibly heating to produce a stabilised crude oil.
The addition of Natco’s electrostatic dehydrators and/or desalters, TriVolt or TriVoltmax, into the process train allows for the production of a stabilised crude oil which will meet the end user’s specification with extremely low water and salt content.
TriGrid and TriGridmax: Natco’s process can remove unwanted salts and water from the oil stream, produce a stabilised crude oil and condition the gas and effluent water allowing them to be disposed of or used in other ways, for example, fuel or re-injection.
A typical process train would include phase separators and possibly heating to produce a stabilized crude oil.
The addition of Natco’s electrostatic dehydrators and or desalters, TriGrid or Trigridmas, into the process train allows for the production of a stabilised crude oil which will meet the end user’s specification with low water and salt content.
The TriGrid and TriGridmax design is such that it is ideal for operating in situation subject to movement such as on FPSOs or semi-submersible platforms, which are subject to wave motion.
The design is proven with units operating in the most testing environments such as the North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and the South China Sea.