Oil and gas services onshore and offshore the UAE

UAE

Khaled Omar, CEO of GOGAS, talks to The Energy Year about growing the company’s business and geographical footprint and exciting prospects for the application of AI tools in the oil and gas sector. GOGAS is a fabrication, engineering and marine services contracting company.

What is your growth strategy for the next five years?
My vision for the next five years is to expand in two ways. The first is geographical; I want to expand outside of the UAE into Saudi Arabia, the GCC and Africa.
The second concerns our business lines. GOGAS currently does EPC and marine work, but we also support other services; for example, we are trying to aid customers such as Baker Hughes in directional operations, as we want to improve our drilling services. Another marine service we will expand into is the renewal and recertification of rigs; we have the accreditation, which allows us to offer a unique service in the GCC.

What role does Africa play in your geographical expansion strategy?
GOGAS has a specific team controlling our business lines in Africa as it will become one of the most important regions in the coming years. Our focus is on North Africa, and we are especially interested in resuming operations in Libya and Algeria.
Algeria is restarting operations now, and we are waiting on the results of some tenders. Libya had strong restrictions before, but I had a meeting with the oil minister and some big players such as Mellitah Oil & Gas and the Arabian Gulf Oil Company, and they are very interested in working with us.
Our relations in Africa are also very good, and I believe that our technical teams have a chance to support drilling projects in countries such as Uganda, Angola and Mauritania.
In the GCC, we succeeded two months ago in signing a contract to resume operations with Aramco, working under NMDC as the main contractor. We also hope to refresh our scope of work and business lines in Saudi Arabia. In addition, in Oman, we carry out communication services for the EPC and marine sectors, among other things.

How important is fabrication for GOGAS, and how do you hope to grow this part of your business?
We have a big fabrication yard in Sharjah which we will expand, and we will improve the equipment and workforce once we attain an EPC project. We have some projects under evaluation and have submitted some tenders. Once the opportunity arises, we will immediately proceed with our expansion plan, subject to cost control.
We will soon incorporate an engineering consultancy office to become a first-class global company. While we finish acquiring the necessary background, we are developing the supporting resources that will guarantee our success. Adding a consultancy is key, as it will support larger marine and EPC projects, like establishing a refinery. We are looking to control the whole EPC value chain and be a one-stop shop for such projects.

What are the characteristics of your fleet for marine services?
Currently, we own three barges. We used to have more than 10 vessels, and we are surveying the market to improve our fleet with new additions in 2025. We renovate our fleet every five or six years, following NMDC’s standards.
Recently, we signed a contract with them to renew three barges for a big project with Aramco: GOGAS 250, GOGAS 252 and GOGAS 255. We hope to have no less than eight vessels in our fleet in the next five years, which would mean an investment of up to USD 30 million.

How has the market for marine services evolved in 2024?
The market is not like it was before. After Covid-19, everything changed. Shipping costs, workforce availability and the way professional teams work with you are different. And although it is easy to deal with the client, as it is a matter of smart business, the market now only cares about reducing costs.
Competitors are trying to reduce costs and the markup as much as possible, making it challenging to get a project, avoid making a loss and earn a profit from it. This pushes us to accept breakeven projects from some good clients to avoid losing market share.

What role do AI and optimisation play in your company?
We have a sister company in Dubai, Gulf Data International, with more than 40 engineers working on digitalisation and AI projects. We have been helping Aramco and ADNOC for more than 30 years to enhance the software and hardware side of their business.
Recently, we won a contract with ADNOC for well optimisation using AI. We were also awarded a project with an Iraqi oil company. AI is a smart way for businesses to manage operations, production and safety while avoiding human error.
However, implementing software and system updates in the oil and gas sector is not easy. Oil and gas is a very specific business, and it is hard to implement software for drilling and production. After many meetings and demos with ADNOC, they became very appreciative of our digitisation proposals and signed the contract. Now, we have to keep innovating every day and finding new ways to implement AI with them.

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