A Saudi oil and gas technology leader

Saudi Arabia

Abdulmuin Alyousef, CEO of Completion Energy, talks to The Energy Year about the company’s strategy to export technologies developed locally and its success in introducing Saudi-designed technology into the international market. Completion Energy is an oil and gas downhole technology provider that offers in-house engineering, manufacturing and dedicated services to operators.

What is the company’s strategy to export technologies developed in Saudi Arabia?
We are focusing only on niche, unique technologies. We are the first Saudi company to own patents in well interventions and completions. We already have four in-house technologies patented, and we are in the process of acquiring over 12 more. We are also the first 100% Saudi company to publish two scientific reports in the Society of Petroleum Engineers about our unique technology.
Once our new factory is ready in Q2 2023, it will have an output of over 7,000 products per month, with the first fully automated machine shop in Saudi Arabia running 24 hours per day. We will manufacture the product locally and ship it to the USA, Canada, Argentina and Russia.
In order to have a global impact, your technology must be unique and at the same time, suitable to Saudi Aramco standards. The technical challenge we are facing right now with our innovative tools is that we must give the complete commands and technical specifications to the end users. If you commit to a 100% success rate for each project, customers will then always expect 100% success rates, so your reputation is always on the line.

How did the government’s support help you succeed at introducing Saudi-designed technology into the international market?
Supported by the government, our production costs are currently lower than anywhere in the world, especially with fully automated machine shops. After a lengthy process, our products received Saudi Aramco approval, which convinced everyone in the market to purchase them: SLB [formerly Schlumberger], Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford International, NESR [National Energy Services Reunited] and more. In order to convince end users, we also do aggressive testing according to API requirements.
As part of Vision 2030, we are pushing to be one of the first private local companies to support the global oil and gas business by manufacturing products made in Saudi Arabia. 70 years ago, Saudi Aramco imported all their products from the US. Now, we will soon export our products to the US market.

What kind of environmentally friendly tools have you developed for the fracking business?
We are the main supplier of the dissolvable frac plug, called the SolvFrac plug. These have been run in 21 wells, and we have sold 60 plugs to Saudi Aramco. Two days after the fracking activity is finished, the frac plug material dissolves and fully disappears. We are the first company globally with a product that can do this.
The main advantage is that it eliminates the requirement for coiled tubing operations. It saves time and money. It is also the only such product in the market that can hold pressure for 48 hours in a well stimulated with 28% HCl acid and a maximum bottom hole pressure of 18,148 psi [1,251 bar].

Which of your products is more suitable to penetrate markets beyond Saudi Arabia’s borders?
Aside from the frac plug, another flagship product of ours is the High-Force Extended Reach Tool. It’s also designed for Saudi Aramco, and we have used it in more than 100 projects successfully. It provides a unique solution, as it improves the high frictional forces generated by the flow displacement inside coil tubing in long trajectories, such as in long vertical or horizontal wells.
The tool generates axial displacement fluctuations, high-flow rates which can be used in clean-outs or stimulation treatments and high-torque connections that increase strength, which are useful in high-deviated and long-horizontal wells. The US has the biggest market in the world for this type of product, and our technology is unique.

What is Energy Completion’s strategy to expand internationally?
We have a JV with Renegade Wireline Services, one of the largest independent wireline services in the US market. Together, we will supply the dissolvable frac plug for the US and Canadian markets. We will begin production in March 2023.
We already have a presence in Abu Dhabi. In 2023, we will focus on expanding our wireline services into the GCC, as a part of our strategy to introduce the dissolvable frac plug in the market.
Our strategy is to have joint ventures in Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Iraq, Libya and Egypt, among other places. We have two JVs in the process of being set up. Our goal is to take the company public in 2026. So far, the company is employee-owned, meaning that each employee owns a share.

Please provide more information on your upcoming JVs and their specialisations.
The latest JVs, as well as others, will supplement our specialised thru-tubing capabilities, allowing us to provide a full-package service to our customers, particularly Saudi Aramco, under the special LSTK [lump-sum turnkey] contract, in which they will only supervise the operation’s execution.
To achieve this service, we must broaden our current capabilities through collaboration with companies that specialise in technologies such as wireline, coil tubing and snubbing unit services.

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