Open to new business in the UAE’s oil and gas sector

UAE

Jon Rawding, CEO of Euro Mechanical, talks to The Energy Year about the company’s drive to open up new revenue streams and about sourcing international oil and gas partners that are a good fit with ADNOC’s operations. Euro Mechanical is an Emirati provider of equipment and engineering services to the oil and gas, petrochemicals, renewables and industrial sectors.

What is Euro Mechanical’s roadmap for the upcoming years?
Previously, we had been focusing on growing the company’s revenue. In the past six years, we tripled our revenue while maintaining our margins. But as we went into 2024, we redrafted our roadmap. We looked out to 2030 and built out a strategic vision whereby roughly 30% of our revenue will come from areas that we’re not working in today.
Our focus will be to continue to grow the core business, keeping ICV [in-country value] as a big part of the puzzle. We also have to make sure that our construction and fabrication facility has the capabilities and capacity to grow, and we might need to do a real estate expansion.
We are also looking to offer additional products in manufacturing and fabrication. For example, through acquisitions, we could add services in the construction and maintenance business areas, or we could provide services in-house that we’re outsourcing today. This goes also for our Mechanical Integrity Solutions division. Moreover, in our 2030 vision, we’re looking to advance our transition to sustainable energy.

Which challenges do you foresee in your strategy to provide more sustainability services to companies like ADNOC?
Part of the challenge is that we are maintaining and growing what we have. Something that we all need to be aware of is that we can’t just turn the power off on oil and gas and expect wind and solar and all the renewables to provide the energy we need. It has to be a stepped approach, and it has to start at the top. Naturally, we want to continue working alongside ADNOC in oil and gas, specifically on providing solutions to decarbonise their operations and increase their efficiency. In addition to that, we’ll be looking into the sustainability area.
The energy sector is driven by ADNOC, which is also driving the transition. A lot of the knowledge that we possess today in oil and gas is transferable to sustainable energy, if we pick the appropriate markets. That is why we are spending time and effort to properly understand niche players in renewable energy markets.
The main challenge that we are facing is the complexity of the market, the noise and the speculation. A lot of companies have lost a lot of money, including the big players. It is still a frontier space. Overall, we are doing the appropriate research to make sure that we’re playing in the right space and making the appropriate connections while looking at long-term strategies.

What difficulties have you encountered when looking for new partners that fit with your long-term strategy?
It has happened quite often that partners have come in and wanted to run as fast as they possibly can, but that is not how the UAE works. ADNOC and other companies in the UAE have been burnt that way many times. Our role is to make sure that the partners are sustainable. We have to make sure that there is value in what they are bringing, that it works in this market and that they are committed. When people fly in and fly out, it doesn’t work.
Partners need to understand the culture and listen to the client. It’s not about the sale. It’s about listening to the client. Our strategy is very much driven by the ADNOC strategy, and the key is bringing in the right companies because ADNOC and government entities often already know what they want. It’s about building a relationship of trust with ADNOC, and then a relationship of trust with the partner. Trust has to come from both sides.
The partners may not see what ADNOC sees, and ADNOC may not see what the partners see, but we can see both sides. We will step in as much as we need to, and we’ll step aside as much as we need to. We will tell partners when we think a relationship isn’t going to work. We’re straightforward.

How has Euro Mechanical aligned itself with UAE’s core values and long-term vision?
When we talk about our values, core principles and how we build relationships, we are talking in generational terms. The longer you stay here, the more you will realise that there is a long-term plan and that the UAE’s generational leadership has a long-term vision. It’s not centred on making profits quarter by quarter or on getting re-elected. It is centred on turning the country into the best version of itself for the next generation.
We follow the same philosophy. Our leaders and shareholders – our owners, at the end of the day – share the vision of the leaders of the UAE. Our vision is deeply aligned with the UAE vision. We are 100% Emirati-owned and are 100% behind Emiratisation, but we have a global background and can also offer, if you like, the international flavour.

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