Swedish hospitality

Open for business Magnus Scholdtz, Sweden?s ambassador to the UAE officially opens the newly expanded Atlas Copco facilities in Dubai.
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Seizing the opportunity to be closer to its customers in the oil and gas industry, Swedish compressor provider Atlas Copco expanded its existing customer service centre in Dubai.

The centre will gather the company’s products and services under one roof and provide a new competence centre for sales and service across the UAE.

Atlas Copco has US$200-300 million worth of projects in the region currently in the pipeline this year giving it significant standing in the oil field compressor equipment market.

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During the red carpet inauguration of the facility which had a rather regal overtone to it, Atlas Copco’s visiting Specialty Rental Division president Horst Wasel and Emile Bado, its Regional general manager based out of Belgium and Bahrain respectively explained their objectives for the company.

“With our new customer centre, we show our commitment to be closer to our customers, and to support them in a more professional manner. We aim to be a good corporate citizen in the UAE by positively contributing to economic, environmental and social aspects of our market,” said Bado.

Wasel said that the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar with an increase in its gas-related business activity were very strong markets for its products despite the economic downturn with projects being on hold for the best part of two years. Wasel also stressed on improving safety, both for oil field personnel and for the environment.

“We are always looking into more product development but we are also looking at more and more competence around the world for oil and gas,” he said.

Opportunities and trends
“Over the last two years, projects were on hold or were slowed down, the numbers [of projects] will increase and we have the right capacity ready for that.”

Wasel believes that the number of projects is already back on the rise in the Gulf and now in Iraq.

The company has chosen Amman, Jordan based WTE as its distributor as it positions itself in anticipation of a future surge in projects in Iraq.

“We want to be prepared to be ready when Iraq is really moving, today as we know there are a lot of projects in the pipeline but they are not executed yet. We see this as the biggest opportunity in the market here.

Wasel said that the company recently supplied four centrifugal compressors in Iraq for South Gas Company but pointed out that Iraq for Atlas Copco is not a new market, it has been in Iraq for about 20-30 years: “We have started with our partner to retrofit machines to make customers again aware that we are there for them, that we will not disappear, we will open more service stations and centres and we will hire more service people to get things done in Iraq.”