A family tradition of industry innovation

Saudi Arabia

Manoj Tripathy, CEO of the industrial and energy division of Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Group, talks to The Energy Year about how the company – a traditional family business – manages to remain an industry innovator. The Kanoo Industrial & Energy division operates extensively in the GCC region through its two business units, Kanoo Energy and Kanoo Machinery.

How can a traditional family business such as Kanoo manage to remain an industry innovator?
At Kanoo, we take pride in being a trailblazer in the industry. We are constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation within our areas of operation. As a leading service provider in the region, we understand the importance of adapting to our clients’ evolving needs and delivering local added value.
What sets us apart is our unwavering commitment to diversification. Our portfolio spans a wide range of sectors, including industrial services, energy-related solutions, travel, logistics, shipping, and real estate. This diversity allows us to stay ahead of the curve and explore new opportunities. We don’t shy away from global ventures either – our investment arm actively seeks out cutting-edge technologies that we can bring to our local market.
Every year we embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship by incubating capabilities in new areas and expanding into untapped geographical territories. We thrive on the excitement of venturing into uncharted territories, whether it’s exploring new trading activities or entering emerging markets.
While our 130-year history gives us a sturdy foundation, we consider ourselves a big startup – always hungry for growth and eager to make a lasting impact. Our tagline, “delivering sustainable excellence,” encapsulates our approach to business. Sustainability is not an afterthought for us; it is deeply ingrained in our operations as we strive for long-term success.
We are one of the leading service providers to the core industrial sectors such as the oil and gas, power, water, mining, petrochemicals, marine and manufacturing sectors. We offer unique value-added solutions to technical problems through our skilled in-house engineers and staff and through a well-developed network of international companies and associates.
Our expertise extends across the entire energy spectrum. From power generation and electricity services to upstream and downstream oil and gas solutions, we have a comprehensive understanding of the sector.
However, we don’t stop there. Our capabilities in industrial process solutions, rotating equipment and valve services, industrial consumables, chemicals, safety, and heavy equipment sales and rental enable us to cater to diverse industries, such as ports, logistics, construction, mining and aviation.
At Kanoo, we embrace the spirit of a challenger, combining our extensive business portfolio with an unwavering commitment to innovation. By staying agile, investing in innovative technologies, and expanding our horizons, we continue to shape the industry and deliver sustainable excellence to our clients.

What is Kanoo Industrial & Energy’s heavy equipment rental business model?
We have positioned ourselves as experts in heavy equipment management through long-term leasing, providing a compelling value proposition to major players in the core industrial sector such as Aramco. These industry giants prefer to be asset light, focusing on their core business.
That is where we come in. We handle the heavy equipment so they can focus on what they do best. Our contracts with Aramco extend over an impressive duration of 10-15 years, ensuring long-term sustainability for us.
When it comes to heavy machinery, we provide leasing of diverse types of equipment and bring our expertise to the table by operating and maintaining the machinery as well. With workshops and skilled personnel scattered across the region, we ensure an impressive availability rate of approximately 95% at any given time.
Kanoo Industrial & Energy boasts a mighty fleet of over 1,300 machines. Our ambitious plans involve expanding our rental equipment business even further by adding another 1,000 units to our fleet. It’s all about meeting the growing demand head on!
We are witnessing a surge in demand from major players in most of the industrial sector. These players require a substantial amount of heavy equipment. They work with multiple contractors simultaneously, and we step in by selling machines to these contractors.
It’s not just the big players; private companies across industries such as industry, ports, and logistics firms are all jumping on the asset-light bandwagon. They optimise their operations by minimising capital investments while we ensure the availability and upkeep of the equipment they need.

How would you describe Kanoo’s wide range of JV ventures?
Kanoo’s range of JV ventures is a testament to our commitment to collaboration and excellence. With 35 JVs across the region, we have formed powerful partnerships with renowned companies in diverse segments, such as Haliburton, Maersk, AkzoNobel, BASF and Exxon Mobil (Infineum).
These joint ventures serve as catalysts for innovation and growth. They allow us to tap into their expertise and leverage their global networks. For over 40 years, our JV with Halliburton has positioned us as a major player in the drilling fluid manufacturing business, while our partnership with Maersk has propelled us in the maritime industry. These ventures, along with others, enable us to expand our capabilities, explore new markets and deliver exceptional value to our customers.
The two recent additions to our JV basket are with global chemical sourcing company Manuchar of Belgium and a JV with one of Asia’s largest C&I [commercial and industrial] rooftop solar power producers, CleanMax (a Brookfield Renewable company). With the latter, we are investing in C&I rooftop solar power in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Through collaboration, we continue to forge new paths, drive sustainable excellence and shape the future of the industries we operate in.

What is your view on developing manufacturing and maintenance units in Saudi Arabia?
In line with Saudi Vision 2030 and the various programmes initiated by the industry leaders in Saudi Arabia, such as Aramco’s IKTVA [In-Kingdom Total Value Add] programme, we have prioritised localisation through assembly, manufacturing and services, thus adding real value to our offerings.
We are passionate about encouraging our partners to identify areas that can be localised in addition to our own plan to expand our service capabilities in the diverse segments in which we operate to drive the localisation of capabilities within the kingdom.
Apart from our various JVs in local manufacturing – as mentioned earlier and which we continue to progress with – we also have our own in-house valve assembly and manufacturing unit in Dammam, which has an approved plant ID from Aramco. We are also in the process of localising the manufacturing of ultrasonic flowmeters for flared gas under a licensing agreement from one of our global partners.
Furthermore, we are working on finalising an agreement to bring in a 3D services company as a partner to support the industrial sector in developing the localisation of the supply chain through on-demand additive manufacturing.
Developing local service capabilities has been a part of our success story over the last decade as we transformed ourselves from a large trading and product supplies company to a solution provider. We accomplished this transformation by expanding our projects and services business within the O&M [operations and maintenance] segments of the industries we operate in.
One such example of our commitment is our facility in Jubail, which has an area of 8,000 square metres. We are developing this state-of-the-art facility for the maintenance of all kinds of rotating equipment and specific drilling equipment.
Furthermore, our in-house project team, while executing awarded projects, continues to develop local vendors for manufacturing and services as part of our commitment to growing the value of local content.
It is interesting to note that Kanoo has been one of the pioneers driving localisation. Our first JV with Halliburton to locally produce drilling ores such as barite and bentonite was set up in Saudi Arabia almost 44 years ago, and we continue to actively seek opportunities to localise more manufacturing and service capabilities either as developers or investors. As you can see, we are extremely excited for the future.

How is Kanoo expanding its chemical trading businesses?
As we expand our product range and set our sights on geographical growth in the chemical sector, we have partnered with Manuchar, a renowned, Belgian-headquartered, global chemical trading company.
Through our joint venture named Kanoo Manuchar in Saudi Arabia, together we plan to capitalise on Saudi Arabia’s booming urban development. We will see new opportunities in sectors such as food, agriculture, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals and further sustain and grow our legacy chemical business into the petrochemicals sector.
Manuchar, as a global player with extensive experience operating in emerging markets, opens opportunities for expanding our market reach and creating local value through investments into the operating assets needed for bulk chemical trading in Saudi Arabia. In summary, beyond being simply traders in this segment, we are moving towards being catalysts for progress.

What are the company’s ventures in renewable energy?
Kanoo was the pioneer in providing utility-grade power in the kingdom using containerised diesel generator assets over two decades ago. Entire off-grid towns, such as Al Ula, Turaif, Awageela and Tathlith, among many others, and local airports depended solely on the power generated by Kanoo for many years. In line with our commitment to sustainability and a cleaner environment, a bold decision was taken to exit the fossil-fuel business and make the transition to renewable energy.
Sustainable energy is the need of the hour, and Kanoo is committed to helping the kingdom achieve its goal of net-zero in line with Vision 2030. With its experience of providing utility-grade power to the Saudi Electricity Company, among other companies, Kanoo has entered the solar arena in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia with a strong commitment to clean energy in a joint venture agreement with the foremost company in Asia in the rooftop solar business, CleanMax.
CleanMax is the leading C&I renewable energy player in Asia, with over 1,000 MW of solar-equivalent capacity developed to date. Following successful international diversification into Thailand and the UAE, CleanMax offers multi-geography solutions to multinational clients.
The game-changing partnership between Kanoo and CleanMax in the region will help C&I customers adopt solar energy easily and in an affordable manner with immediate savings in electricity bills. Kanoo offers zero-investment solar solutions, where it invests, installs and operates the solar power plant at the customer’s premises and in turn offers energy on a 20-year power purchase model.
Kanoo is approved by the Ministry of Energy in Saudi Arabia and has in-house resources for carrying out turnkey installation. With the net-billing regulations currently being implemented in the kingdom, C&I customers can expect immediate energy savings by installing rooftop solar power plants in their facility.
While Saudi Arabia has primarily focused on giga-sized utility-scale power plants, the future holds great potential for private entities to sell power back to the grid. Though some of these plans are still in the pipeline, as the market expands and regulations evolve, we are gearing up to take a larger slice of the renewable energy pie.

How are you participating in the region’s transition to gas-fired power plants?
Kanoo Energy is actively involved in offering pipeline natural-gas-based power solutions. With the shift happening from diesel and HFO [heavy fuel oil] to cleaner fuels, gas is envisaged to play a key role within the industrial sector.
In partnership with leading OEMs providing gas-engine and turbine solutions, Kanoo Energy offers high-efficiency gas-based BOOT and EPC power solutions. These include CCHP [combined cooling, heat and power] solutions, where efficiencies can be more than 90%. Through these solutions, Kanoo Energy helps clients reduce their carbon footprint and optimise their energy usage.
In the UAE, we have achieved remarkable progress in the last six months with the commissioning of a 13-MW gas-engine plant on a BOOT basis in Ras Al Khaimah. We’ve been awarded another EPC contract for a 16-MW CCHP project in Abu Dhabi. We are also working on a pipeline in Saudi Arabia as well. With plans to expand our asset base in this segment, I would say we are just getting started.

What are the main trends regarding asset maintenance in Saudi Arabia?
In the world of asset maintenance, predictive maintenance is becoming a game-changer, particularly for downstream plants with ageing assets. We have recognised the importance of this shift and are diving headfirst into AI and machine learning to revolutionise predictive maintenance.
To that end, we are actively seeking partnerships with external companies. We have a team dedicated to watching the market for potential collaborations.
Our focus areas here include asset integrity, digital twinning, and robotics for services such as NDT [non-destructive testing], blasting, painting columns and vessels, corrosion under insulation and emissions monitoring. We are also embracing the power of 3D printing, especially for critical items in the rotating equipment sector. 3D printing not only aligns with the industry’s post-Covid drive towards localising the supply chain but also signifies the digitisation of services.

What kind of technology can accelerate CO2 capture efforts in the region, and what is Kanoo’s plan in this area?
In collaboration with Carbon Clean, a UK-based company at the forefront of carbon capture advancements, we are exploring ground-breaking solutions. Traditionally, carbon capture plants have required a substantial amount of space, but Carbon Clean’s pioneering containerised model has revolutionised the game. This patented technology offers a more compact and scalable approach to carbon capture.
We are actively working towards finalising an agreement with ADNOC, a major player in the energy sector, to install the region’s first modular carbon capture unit. With our sights set on the operational readiness of this unit by COP28, we will be driving progress in reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable practices for a greener future.

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