Ulf Henriksson, Chief Executive Officer of Invensys plc, visited Cairo to finalise a joint venture between Invensys Process Systems, ENPPI and GASCO that will train hundreds of Egyptian engineers and establish Egypt’s first Industrial Automation Engineering Centre of Excellence.
The joint venture will play a significant role in the modernisation of the Egyptian petroleum industry, helping Egypt increase refinery utilisation, maximise productivity and minimise maintenance costs.
The agreement, which was recently concluded between Egyptian Petroleum Minister, Eng. Sameh Fahmy, and Henriksson, will further develop local technical competence by training Egyptian engineers as part of a knowledge transfer program. The sharing of IPS’ expertise both with existing engineers and Egypt’s new engineering graduates is fundamental to the joint venture, which will help generate a deeper understanding of automation in the oil and gas sector and enable improved productivity within existing Egyptian refineries and production plants.
“This joint venture is an important milestone in the expansion of the Egyptian oil and gas industry. IPS have clearly recognised the significant market potential in Egypt, and as a partner, we will benefit substantially, not only in the field technology transfer, but in job creation and local manufacturing,” said Fahmy.
Henriksson said, “I attach great importance to this new venture. This best business practise model enables profits to be shared with our customers while creating genuine partnership. We are committed to building a world-class modern facility, which will include a versatile staging area, workshop and warehouse capable of handling the largest automation projects. Naturally we hope that our significant local presence will help enlarge our installed base in the country and promote the growth of high technology.”
Engineers at the new Industrial Automation Engineering Centre of Excellence will be responsible for the assembly and integration of complex automation systems, and the new modern facility will reduce engineering costs and delivery time to the customer. Once in operation, the joint venture plans to export engineering throughout the Middle East, Africa and North Africa markets. This joint venture is likely to be the first of many as IPS roll out their new business development model in emerging markets worldwide.
IPS have been active in the Egyptian market for more than ten years and have successfully managed projects in the oil and gas industry, such as the MIDOR refinery in Alexandria, UGDC plants and SCADA for pipelines. The company’s expertise also extends to the power generation sector, where they have worked on the Cairo North Power Plant. Today, IPS-trained Egyptian software engineers are working on international projects in Singapore, the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Canada, in addition to serving the local market.
IPS has its largest Engineering Excellence Centre (EEC) in Cairo. The EEC currently has more than 270 engineers, and the company plans to have 500 engineers there within in two years.
The software engineering hours developed in the Cairo EEC are exported to IPS delivery offices worldwide as part of the Egyptian government’s global off-shoring strategy. Last year, the EEC in Cairo delivered 300,000 hours of software engineering to its global customers, and this year it aims to reach 400,000 hours. IPS global customers include Exxon Mobil, Total, Aramco, BP, Shell and other major international companies. IPS has taken these strategic decisions because it believes that Egypt has the talent and resources to play a major role in global engineering.