Baku, Azerbaijan, June 27
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
Exclusive interview of Trend with Tommy Kassem, Vice-President for Oil Field Services, Russia-Caspian, Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE).
Operations in Azerbaijan
As a leading supplier of oil and gas equipment and services for exploration, drilling, production, transportation, liquefaction, compression, processing and storage for some of the most challenging onshore and offshore Caspian projects, including Shah Deniz, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, Absheron, and TANAP - we have been present in Azerbaijan since 1990s.
Today, we have 4 businesses in Azerbaijan or 4 Product Companies, as we call them at BHGE: Oilfield Services (OFS), Oilfield Equipment (OFE), Turbomachinery and Process Solutions (TPS) and Digital Solutions (DS), comprised of Measurement and Controls, as well as BHGE’s Digital business. BHGE is a proud partner of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), as well as BP, TOTAL, Equinor, Caspian Drilling Company. We operate with our customers across all Product Companies both in simple operations, such as regular field, or in more challenging offshore operations.
As part of ongoing investments and interest at this strategic region, BHGE recently inaugurated its new office in the center of Baku and established it as its regional hub for the OFS business in Russia and Caspian region. Today, more than 300 employees work overall at BHGE in Azerbaijan and more than 90 percent of the staff is local.
We continue to partner with local universities, such as Baku Higher Oil School, Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University to provide a variety of trainings and programs to both our employees and students of these universities. In addition to existing leadership programs, we have successfully launched Internship program this month, focusing on hiring 8 interns for Pressure Pumping and Completion product lines. Our goal is to support the development of a new generation of experienced and qualified professionals to achieve the desired successes in the oil and gas sector.
Cooperation with SOCAR
We work with SOCAR in the upstream - field operations, offshore and land. As a strong player in the digitization of the oil and gas sector, we also support customers with our Asset Performance Management (APM) that enables our partners to achieve significant savings by increasing maintenance efficiency and effectiveness. For example, BHGE’s APM software supports delivering efficiency and productivity for STAR Refinery A.Ş. and Petkim Petrokimya Holding A.Ş., both owned by SOCAR in Turkey. As part of the Asset Management System Establishment and Implementation Project, this marks the first-of-its-kind digital project by BHGE in Turkey and the first digital partnership globally with SOCAR.
We are in continues discussions with SOCAR and evaluating solutions to deploy our state-of-art technologies which are aimed at improving health, safety and environment (HSE), drive better returns, reducing the cost of lifting and enhance production. There are many areas that we are looking at for further development. Artificial lift in all its forms and reservoir studies are some examples.
Stimulation from vessel at Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli
Last year, together with BP and Topaz we launched a newly retro-fitted vessel to be used for acid stimulation activities in Azer-Chirag-Gunashli field. This vessel enabled well stimulation for production enhancement reducing the footprint needed to operate from a platform, it provides a safe and sustainable method for continuous operations. This is the first-time wells stimulation from a vessel technique was applied in the Caspian to enhance field production.
Safety First!
BHGE culture is built on safety, compliance and integrity, and quality. And we strive to make every day without injuries, accidents, illness or harm to the environment. We call it the "Perfect HSE Day’. In 2018 we had 365 Perfect HSE days in Azerbaijan. And our OFE business in Azerbaijan achieved a milestone of 22 years in a row without significant injuries.
Digitization is the Future
There is a good and favorable business environment in Azerbaijan. The number of oil and gas companies participating in the recent Caspian Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference also proves that. During the conference I participated in the panel discussion on the operational excellence through ‘smart’ infrastructure, chaired by Yashar Latifov, Vice-President for Field Development, SOCAR.
As an industry we need to take more steps towards automation and digitalization to improve overall field management. Field operations are becoming more complex and we risk production issues if we continue to operate manually. Today BHGE offer many Digital application, sensors, and interfaces that can drive better results and support faster and improved decision making. Digitization and automation are the future of the oil and gas industry.
About BHGE
BHGE was formed in July 2017 as a result of combination of GE Oil & Gas and Baker Hughes. By merging these two companies, each with more than 100 years of experience, we created the first and only company in the oil and gas industry that operates and provides solutions across the entire value chain, which is upstream, midstream and downstream.
BHGE was established in response to the needs of oil and gas customers to keep abreast of the constantly changing trends and to help them with smart solutions to drive their operations. BHGE combines in-depth technology and expertise with the passion of emerging companies. We work tirelessly to conduct our business in a way that ensures the continuity of customer businesses, address any challenges, achieve & exceed the desired performance objectives.
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