An integrated portfolio of oilfield services

Kuwait

Rachad Chahine, executive board member and general product lines manager of Gulf Drilling and Maintenance (GDMC), talks to The Energy Year about deploying technologies to enhance production from ageing wells and the company’s plans to grow its footprint in the GCC. GDMC is a Kuwaiti oilfield services company.

How has diversification helped you compete in Kuwait’s upstream segment?
We have built a fleet to provide hydraulic fracturing services and are the first domestic company in Kuwait to perform frack jobs. We compete with the big four in fracking services and have won business from them. In coiled tubing, which is a standard service without advanced technology or fancy features, we have set ourselves apart by incorporating fibre optics and e-coil technology, which make our services more advanced and more attractive to clients.
We have also digitised our slickline services with imported Paramount cables, which enable the slickline to function as a wireline unit for logging. By integrating digital capabilities and mechanical services, we provide clients with superior service, efficiency and cost-effectiveness using the same slickline equipment.
Since GDMC doesn’t have an R&D department, we collaborate with R&D teams in Europe and the US who support us and have helped us expand gradually and effectively.

How do your services help enhance well productivity and oil production?
We have well-completion and fracturing systems that inject chemicals into wells to boost productivity, and we also test the oil to assess production rates. Slickline services, valued at around USD 500 million, involve opening parts of the well. Coiled tubing services, valued at around USD 200 million, involve cleaning and maintaining wellheads. Logging services, which involve more engineering and are also valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, use special tools to create x-rays of well formations, identifying oil and water locations.
We offer a variety of engineering and chemical solutions for reservoirs. Once a reservoir has been accurately located, you can identify where drilling will produce water and where it will produce oil, but doing so with precision requires experience and best practices. Another crucial aspect is the completion system. Ours can create multiple ports in the reservoir and extract oil from various points. If oil-water contact increases, the system can monitor and control these areas, maintaining pressure on the surface to stabilise production levels. Proper pressure management prevents increases in oil-water contact, which can occur due to poor engineering practices.
GDMC can provide both the services that create more entry points for oil extraction and the devices that maintain pressure, which we source from NOV and other companies. Our engineers collaborate with our clients’ teams to identify the best possible solutions.

Who are some of GDMC’s biggest clients in the GCC?
KOC is our main domestic client, and our aim with them is to provide solutions and ongoing support rather than just commercial gain. We also work with Kuwait Gulf Oil Company and have contracts with Khafji Joint Operations, which involve both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. We began operating in Saudi Arabia in 2016 with slickline services for Aramco and now provide them with coiled tubing and wellhead maintenance services as well. GDMC is also a registered provider for ADNOC, although we currently do not have business with them.
We want to grow in the GCC. At the moment we are focusing on developing a bigger portfolio in Kuwait, specifically in logging services and open-hole perforation, and building our business in Saudi Arabia with Aramco. Our plan is to establish a solid foundation in these two countries and then expand to the rest of the GCC.

What are your most dynamic business segments in Kuwait at the moment?
Demand is generally high in Kuwait at the moment because several new fields have been discovered and the rig count is increasing, and we are confident that production will rise as well, so we expect the overall demand for oilfield services to grow in the near future.
Additionally, mega-projects are under way in North Kuwait to develop gas and heavy oil resources. Substantial investments are being made and we want to support these initiatives and increase our market share in those segments. Our market share in North Kuwait is more than 35%, but my vision is not to capture the entire market. I would rather that clients trust GDMC’s resources, manpower, experience and equipment. That is the way to gain market share.
We are seeing an influx of vendors from China who have ample resources to grow in the GCC market. To compete, we want to build an integrated portfolio of services to participate in integrated projects in Kuwait that involve various elements, such as rigs, completion and drilling. Interestingly, we do not currently offer drilling services, even though our name is Gulf Drilling Maintenance Company. Adding drilling services is part of our long-term expansion plan, as is offering artificial lifting services.

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