AOC ENTERS STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS TO BOOST CORPORATE ACCESS TO SPECIALIST SKILLS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES IN WATER MANAGEMENT AND PROCESS CONTROL & INSTRUMENTATION

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands – Aramco Overseas Company (AOC) is forging new strategic links with important international organizations in its continuing efforts to enhance its services to Saudi Aramco in technology and engineering. Ahmed M. Alzayyat, AOC managing director, signed the membership documents to formalize the relationships between AOC and two major organizations – the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP), the country’s national coordination and information center for water-related issues, and the International Instrument User Association (WIB), an independent organization consisting of members operating in various industrial sectors, including Oil & Gas and Petrochemicals.

Although these organizations operate in different focus areas, in both cases the memberships have a single aim – to provide quick, easy access to specialized information while developing long-term engagement with leading experts in their respective fields through collaborative activities.

AOC’s membership with the NWP sets up an effective framework for future collaboration and cooperation to help achieve Saudi Aramco’s water-related objectives. The NWP is an umbrella organization that covers government bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), knowledge institutes and private organizations in the water sector. It is a platform for members to share information, combine expertise, and implement solutions over the entire spectrum of water management activities. “Saudi Aramco has a high interest in water management and in the development of technologies that use the obvious synergies between efficient energy use and provision of clean water supplies,” said Alzayyat. “Our involvement with NWP highlights AOC’s dedicated role in support of these strategic focus areas that are of direct benefit to the Kingdom’s economy.”

In another arena of importance to Saudi Aramco hydrocarbon production and downstream processing facilities, participation in WIB membership will provide industry best-practice information and collaboration opportunities in many important areas of process control and instrumentation. The main benefits of membership and working group participation are the possibility to share with and obtain guidance for new technologies and measurement techniques together with useful information on the deployment of new technologies in other major companies. As an example, the participation in the process control and cyber security working group will highlight the need to increase the robustness of systems and networks with regard to the potentially devastating effects of cyber crime on our processing facilities.