The world’s leading electric submersible pumps (ESP) manufacturer, which makes over 12,000 ESPs annually and accounts for 25 per cent of all installed systems, showcased cutting-edge products at the Middle East Oil and Gas Show and Conference

Borets, a global leader in artificial lift systems engineering, manufacturing, sales and servicing, plans a major expansion in the Middle East, aiming to set up service centres in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and parts of Africa.

The company, with 11 manufacturing facilities in five countries, already has service centres in Oman, Kuwait and Egypt in the region, says Ramy Abdelaziz, Borets Regional Director for the Africa Region.

The world’s leading electric submersible pumps (ESP) manufacturer, which makes over 12,000 ESPs annually and accounts for 25 per cent of all installed systems, had showcased at the Middle East Oil and Gas Show and Conference (MEOS 2019) Vapro Gas Handlers, Permanent Magnet Motors, PCP Thrust Chambers, Horizontal Pumping Systems and various types of ESPs.

"A service centre in Saudi Arabia taking care of assembly, repair and testing is definite, but a manufacturing facility there may be an idea for the future. The service centre in Saudi has not been built yet, but we have acquired the land for it in King Salman Business Park and will be built soon. However, we are heavily investing in our Saudi Arabian operations," says Abdelaziz.

The company has already tendered in a bid to supply ESPs for Saudi Aramco’s Safaniyah project and once that gets through it will enlarge its presence in Saudi Arabia, he says.

Borets has legal representation in the UAE and is undergoing pre-qualification for Adnoc. As soon as that is done, the company will be operating in the UAE as well.

As a global company with a big manufacturing presence, Borets, which has 26 service centres and about 9,000 personnel, is expanding every year. "I am sure that this year we will register higher revenue than last year as the company sets up more business in Africa, Latin America, the US and Canada," he says.

Referring to business growth, he says last year the company had done 30 per cent better than the previous year. With the oil price fluctuations of the last four and a half years affecting the key performance indicators (KPI) of most companies leaving them with lower return on investments (ROIs), companies like Borets were forced to bring in cost-effective technologies, which were at the same time durable, he points out.

On competition, he says everything related to oil and gas production is very competitive with ESPs accounting for 40 per cent of all artificial lift applications globally. "The coming of new players on the market is in a way good for us as it makes us technologically competitive and wired towards customer satisfaction," he notes.

Regarding market saturation he says although the Egypt market is saturated, the Saudi market is only evolving with Aramco having expansion plans for the next 4-5 years.