Top services for Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure

Saudi Arabia

Mohammed Al Hamza, president of Plant-Tech Arabia, talks to The Energy Year about the growing challenge of sourcing skilled labour in Saudi Arabia and how the company’s R&D and training strategies help it stay ahead of the competition. Plant-Tech Arabia is a provider of equipment and maintenance services to refineries, fertiliser plants, mining companies and petrochemicals facilities.

Could you outline the primary goals and significant achievements of Plant-Tech over the past 18 months?
Our sales have grown substantially thanks to the investments that are being made across Saudi Arabia. The oil sector continues to grow, but more attention is being paid to non-oil sectors. Mining, in particular, has become an area of focus, with elevated production of gold and fertiliser minerals.
For instance, Ma’aden, a key client, regularly engages us for support as they often require extensive maintenance services. This demand has brought us record revenue from Ma’aden, particularly this year. We are also expanding our client portfolio beyond our initial primary client, SABIC, to serve Tasnee, Chevron, Sipchem and Advanced Petrochemical Company.

How has diversification affected your turnover?
Our turnover has grown approximately 10% from SAR 145 million [USD 38.6 million] to SAR 160 million [USD 42.6 million]. However, finding manpower capable of meeting stringent safety, environmental and quality standards has presented challenges. Previously, we were able to source manpower more easily, but our current requirements call for highly skilled personnel.
To address this, we have partnered with agencies in India, Pakistan, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka to manage our workforce and scale it as needed. We have worker camps with catering and logistics that are supported by the government’s short-term visa programme, and they allow us to mobilise teams of workers quickly.

Does your in-house training centre facilitate workforce development?
Our training facility is integral to ensuring workforce competency. It provides extensive skill-building and annual refresher courses that exceed standard requirements. Employees are required to obtain third-party qualifications before starting to work at our plants, and our training facility helps them to prepare for them.

In what ways do your talent acquisition and operational strategies differ from those of competitors?
Our approach is different because we proactively recruit and maintain a stable talent pool from our staffing partners abroad. Many employees return year after year, which helps retention and continuity. We incentivise quality and safety achievements and we make significant investments in training, which is conducted by our senior operations staff.
In addition to this, our R&D facility plays a critical role in advancing our technology and ensuring we stay ahead in a competitive market. We focus on developing solutions that improve efficiency, safety and environmental compliance. Our R&D work not only strengthens our service offerings but also helps us to anticipate industry challenges and respond to them, which benefits our clients and supports our broader company goals.

How is Plant-Tech diversifying beyond traditional oil and gas activities?
Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure expansion plans present an opportunity for us. For instance, we are growing our scaffolding business through partnerships with Polati in Russia and German manufacturer Peri. The ringlock scaffolding system we offer reduces assembly time, lowering costs while also increasing load capacity.

Is Plant-Tech involved in any Saudi giga-projects?
Yes, we recently received a request for quotes from NEOM for two projects. One involves hazardous material disposal at a former defence structure, and the other is a large-scale de-watering effort to control seawater seepage. These projects require specialised resources, and Plant-Tech is increasingly being selected by government initiatives to meet these specialised needs.

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