George Bou Mitri

Honeywell, a global technology leader, has announced the launch a new production facility for oil and gas projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). 
 
Located in the Royal Commission area of Jubail, the facility includes a 2,000 sq m workshop and more than 1,000 sq m in office space for handling in-kingdom projects, including manufacturing and assembling. 
 
The facility will mainly cater to the Saudi Arabian market, GCC countries and in the future it will support other projects across the rest of the world. It is expected that the facility will help create at least 20 additional jobs in the kingdom.
 
The facility has been developed as part of a joint venture (JV) partnership (Elster Instromet Saudi Arabia) with Gas Arabian Services to provide a state-of-the-art infrastructure for manufacturing and assembly of natural gas and liquid fuel solutions. 
 
A key part of the new facility is the use of Elster precision solutions, a portfolio of Honeywell solutions that include extensive, end-to-end technologies for gas and liquid metering, as well as control applications for the oil and gas industry. 
 
Through the facility, Honeywell will offer both skids and stations solutions, along with automation and control systems. Honeywell is primarily using the new facility to service approved solutions for Saudi Aramco. 
 
This launch builds on the agreements from the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Honeywell and Saudi Aramco in May 2017, which included Honeywell undertaking commercial efforts to assist Saudi Aramco in achieving the goals of the In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) Programme.
 
IKTVA’s aim is to achieve 70% localization of production and jobs, supporting the goals of Saudi Vision 2030. The new facility will support these objectives by creating production jobs for Saudi nationals, which leads to enhanced local skills and capabilities for future developments. 
 
“Honeywell has been serving the Saudi Arabian market with instrumentation, control systems and advanced application solutions for many decades. The new facility will help drive knowledge transfer and support the creation of highly skilled roles,” said George Bou Mitri, vice president and general manager for Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies in the Middle East. “Our solutions will support the oil and gas sector domestically and across the region by increasing reliability, decreasing maintenance costs and driving future growth.” 
 
“This new facility is another chapter in our 70-year Saudi Arabian history, creating new opportunities and supporting in-Kingdom manufactured and assembled solutions to advance the critical oil and gas sector. Saudi Arabia is a high-growth, strategically important market for Honeywell. We remain fully supportive of the country’s Saudization efforts and continue to invest in knowledge transfer programs as well as locally-based facilities to support the objectives of the long-term national vision,” added Bou Mitri.
 
Honeywell plays a vital role in advancing the development of Saudi Arabia's industries and successful long-term careers through the introduction of training programs, partnerships and facilities that aid the country’s transformation to a knowledge-based economy. These include working with professors and researchers from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran on new catalytic processes for producing paraxylene, and the company’s Honeywell UOP University and Global TECPro initiatives, among others.-- TradeArabia News Service