Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has been supplied with the first “Made in Oman” electric submersible pump (ESP) system for its oil operations from a factory in Sohar.
The $7.5 million Borets Seven Seas & Co.facility was officially opened under the auspices of Dr Ali Bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Minister of Commerce and Industry, said a company release.
The facility will assemble and service ESPs — which provide an efficient and reliable artificial-lift method for extracting moderate to high volumes of fluids from wellbores — for use in oil and water wells. Borets Seven Seas contractors will also install, commission, test and maintain the equipment in the field.
The plant was opened on the Sohar Industrial Estate after PDO negotiated a three-year $105 million contract with Borets, a global leader in artificial lift systems engineering, manufacturing, sales and servicing.
Under the terms of the deal, which also has an option for a seven-year extension, Borets was mandated to establish the plant in the Sultanate, so it can provide training and job opportunities for Omanis, as part of PDO’s efforts to develop local skills and promote In-Country Value (ICV) in hi-tech areas of the economy.
The official opening of the facility was attended by Dr Envarbik Fazelianov, Russian ambassador to the Sultanate, Borets Chief Executive Officer Lev Stulberg and PDO Managing Director Raoul Restucci.
“We are delighted that such a leading company as Borets has opened this new state-of-the-art facility in Oman which is already producing ESPs for our operations,” said Restucci.
“We have worked hard to make this happen as factories like this will help create job opportunities, develop local technical capabilities, shorten our supply chains and reduce our costs.”
A key enabler for this achievement is PDO’s new ESP contracting strategy which is structured in a way that makes it mandatory for contractors to set up ESP manufacturing facilities in Oman as part of their agreements.
“A central plank of our ICV programme is to retain more of the wealth of our industry in Oman and this new factory really is ICV in action.”
“Oman was the first country outside former Soviet Union states, where Borets started its international operations in 2005 - that`s why the Sohar facility is not just one more project for us. We put our hearts into its construction and we will apply our best efforts to perform all our client with high quality and on time,” added Stulberg.
Borets is planning to extend the facility to cater for the assembly, testing and service of the surface componets of the systems, alongside the current downhole ones.
Borets, an international company headquartered in Dubai, is using Sohar port to import ESP parts, and has opened a path for potential co-operation and knowledge transfer with Sultan Qaboos University other Omani educational and research institutes.
The Sohar assembly plant is the first of three ESP facilities to be opened in Oman after PDO negotiations with its contractors.
