'Saudi Arabia is the jewel in the crown of our activities'.

(Image: MohamedAlMousaHwell.jpg )

The surplus oil revenues and the desire in the region to invest in downstream, higher margin products have helped Honeywell grow business in the Middle East more so in Saudi Arabia where it has recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

How would you describe Honeywell's presence in the ME region in general and Saudi Arabia in particular? How has the company grown over the recent years in terms of revenues, market share, turnover and headcount? Honeywell in the Middle East has grown consistently over the years. Over the last several years with the surplus in the oil revenues and the desire in the region to invest in downstream, higher margin products, the Honeywell business has experienced significant growth throughout the Middle East. Honeywell has been present in the Middle East since 1946 and we recently celebrated our 30th anniversary in Saudi Arabia with our valued partners and customers. The Middle East is an important region for all of Honeywell's businesses and Saudi Arabia is the jewel in the crown for our regional activities. To date Honeywell has over 443 employees in Saudi Arabia and operates out of seven different regional offices in the kingdom -- not including the installed units in all refineries and petrochemical plants ranging from licensed units to catalyst, adsorbent and equipment. Honeywell is the largest supplier of automation to the process control industry in the Gulf. What is your view about the Saudi Arabian market? How far are your activities spread out in the country? The Saudi Arabian market is one of the major markets for us and we believe that our products and solutions are in demand by our key customers in all sectors. We have expanded our operations in kingdom so that we currently serve our customers out of all the key cities including the industrial cities of Jubail and Yanbu. We have an ongoing relationship with the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) whereby we provide scholarships to deserving students within the Engineering facility as well as participating in several workshops and seminars throughout the year. With our continued presence in Saudi Arabia we are demonstrating our long-term commitment to the country and the entire region. In Saudi Arabia we have achieved many firsts that we are very proud of including winning the world's largest instrumentation contract in 1975 for Saudi Aramco and providing the largest ever building control systems for the King Khalid Military City which began in 1981. What are the recent trends in Honeywell's 'innovative solutions', more so in the refining, oil and gas, and petrochemicals sector? Well, first and foremost we know that wireless is the path to the future. As the first major process control supplier to offer industrial wireless sensors, Honeywell is an expert in industrial wireless applications that reduce costs, and improve safety, reliability and productivity. Honeywell's OneWireless universal mesh network supports multiple industrial protocols and applications simultaneously, providing a single wireless network that is simple to manage and efficient to operate. OneWireless helps optimise plant productivity and reliability, improve safety and security, and ensure regulatory compliance. Supporting both XYR 6000 and XYR 5000 wireless transmitters, this network delivers a global solution with robust security, predictable power management and multi-speed monitoring. OneWireless solutions offer several benefits beyond avoiding wiring costs, helping customers optimize plant productivity, ensuring safety, meeting regulatory compliance and improving asset reliability. The universal plant-wide OneWireless network supports multiple applications. Our OneWireless solutions protect our customers' investments by integrating Honeywell and other third-party products. In addition, these solutions are guaranteed to migrate to emerging wireless standards. Much more than just avoiding the cost of wire, the breakthrough value lies in the ability to integrate valuable data into existing control systems and advanced applications, while also sharing that data with other networked applications. The OneWireless network is universal -- one platform supporting many field protocols and applications simultaneously. Its simple -- one system to learn, operate and maintain and efficient -- one scalable network conserving spectrum and power These key attributes provide the following benefits: Single plant-wide wireless infrastructure for lowest total cost of ownership; Simultaneously connects to installed industrial protocols (i.e., Hart, OPC, Modbus, etc); Best integrated industrial security available today; Extremely reliable mesh system -- field proven for best uptime; and Most flexible and upgradeable plant wide wireless system available today. Another trend in the region is the understanding that Industrial Security solutions are not an add-on but a necessity. What do high oil prices and high resulting refined product prices mean in terms of security and safety of operations? Quite simply these take on an even higher level of importance, since the financial impact to an operating company from any interruption in production is magnified by higher prices. The cost from opportunity loss is that much higher, naturally. Several key technologies, that were not considered part of the industry 'arsenal' several years ago to address security and safety, are now coming into their own, with gradual, careful, but inexorable adoption by, initially oil and gas production activities as the highest cash flow operations, and later in other parts of the oil and gas supply chain. These technologies or techniques include: * Use of radar combined with video for outside perimeter protection, particularly offshore and near shore, but also on land; * Use of hi-tech materials, more physical barriers that deter unauthorised access or detect that an intrusion has happened; * These may be combined in the right cases with airborne surveillance for additional deterrent; and * Use of video on a larger scale and for wider range of applications in process facilities. Use of wireless networking and location services for combined safety and security benefits. What have been your major gains (in terms of projects) in this year in the Middle East, in general and Saudi Arabia in particular? What is the value and volume of your business in the region? In Saudi Arabia, Honeywell has been providing integrated solutions to the refining, oil and gas and petrochemical industries since 1946. Currently, Honeywell Process Solutions is implementing several projects in the Kingdom, which includes the Sabic-Sharq III expansion, Tasnee's Petrochemicals' ethylene plant, Saudi European Petrochemical Company's polypropylene plant in Al Jubail and Rabigh Refining and Petrochemicals' PetroRabigh facility. Honeywell also enjoys a large footprint across the region working with major companies in the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. Projects include: * Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company uses Honeywell's innovative UniSim Operations for its aromatics plant in Shuaiba, Kuwait; * Qatar Vinyl Company has selected Honeywell's Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) to enhance productivity and profitability at its plant; * Honeywell is working with Pearl Gas-to-Liquids plant in Qatar (a partnership between Qatar Shell GTL and Qatar Petroleum) to provide control valves for one the world's largest gas-to-liquid operations; * RasGas Company Limited -- Qatar operates a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility that uses Honeywell's UniSim technology which enables faster plant start-up; and * Aromatics Oman -- the world's largest paraxylene plant -- selected Honeywell's Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) R300 and Safety Manager technology. Honeywell is providing its Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) for new and existing petrochemical plants to be operated by Equate Petrochemical Company in Shuaiba, Kuwait. Honeywell provides a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for Dolphin Energy's Plant Automation Applications and Pipeline automation system project that uses Honeywell's Business Flex applications, integrated with third-party technologies, across Dolphin Energy's entire gas production, processing and pipeline distribution network in Qatar and the UAE. What is Honeywell's long term strategy for the region and which new areas of growth have been identified by the company? Honeywell's long term strategy for Saudi is to continue to strengthen our presence in the Kingdom and continue to localise much of our technical support to our existing customers and grow the local organisation for years to come. What are the new trends in the oil and gas industry and what impact will those have on your business? There have been significant new investments in grass root refineries across the region which has had the effect of doubling capacity. Companies have been investing in downstream, that is petrochemicals, for higher values returns. In Saudi Arabia, this is evinced in the Dow joint venture with Sabic and Sipchem projects. We have also seen a great increase in capital expenditure spend which has resulted in a significant resource crunch. As far as Honeywell is concerned, the Middle East is a significant growth area across all the sectors that we service in this region. We foresee continued strong growth for the next few years. Over the past several years, we have added significantly to our existing installed base -- which was already the largest one in the region, thanks to the 40 plus years of dedicated service to the region and our customers. Honeywell has been providing integrated solutions to the refining, oil and gas and petrochemical industries in Saudi Arabia for many years now. With an installed base of over $600 million, Honeywell in kingdom resources are always active in helping our customers with system enhancements and expansions. Currently Honey-well Process Solutions is executing over $120 million in various projects in Saudi Arabia. Some projects we are working on include the Sharq III expansion and projects for Tasnee and Saudi Electricity Company, to name a few. What challenges do Honeywell face in conducting its business in this part of the world? Honeywell's overall objective for the Middle East is to be locally present with full skill set to serve our customers in the region. To this end, we continue to grow our local organisations all throughout the gulf. The business challenges, in some part of the gulf are related to availability of housing and local inflation. These challenges are not unique to Honeywell. What are your business projections -- for the ME region and Saudi Arabia in the next five years? We continue to forecast growth of our portfolio of solutions and services in the Gulf. What new challenges do Honeywell face in the wake of the ongoing global economic slowdown? What has been the impact of the US slowdown on your revenues and growth? And how is Honeywell tackling this issue? Automation & Control Solutions (ACS), the strategic business unit (SBU) that contains Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS), is growing both organically and through acquisitions. In the Middle East, we continue to experience significant growth. This growth for HPS is across its entire portfolio including process control systems, emergency shutdown systems, training simulation, advanced process controls and manufacturing execution systems. Due to our established position in several dynamic markets, including the Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia, we continue to service our installed base and provide solutions to new customers year after year. The upswing in oil prices has also led to a slight slowdown in demand for crude. Is the increasing business volatility impacting the ongoing large projects? Or will the impact show in the long term only? In the Middle East all of the oil companies have undertaken mega projects to increase their production capacity to deal with swings in demand. To this extent, Honeywell is actively engaged with the oil producers across the region. Also, due to local energy demand and focus on the downstream value chain in the petrochemicals industry, the demand for gas has also created mega projects for the development of the gas fields. Honeywell is actively engaged in many oil, gas and petrochemical projects throughout the Middle East.

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