Oil prices continue to soar and there is a renewed vigour regarding the continuation of oil and gas projects across the Middle East. Spain-based transport engineering company COORDINADORA has opened its first regional office in Abu Dhabi to ensure transportation operations are smooth-running. Technical Review Middle East sat down with its director Juan H Madsen to understand how COORDINADORA will bring in a change to the freight logistics industry in the Middle East with its services
Technical Review Middle East (TRME): Can you talk about COORDINADORA?s journey from Madrid to the Middle East? Why did you decide to open the regional office in Abu Dhabi?
Juan H Madsen (JHM): There has been a lot of inactivity across the globe due to lowered oil prices in the recent years but the Middle East has shown resilience. GCC countries, especially, continue to invest in energy projects as global demand for crude oil grows by 1.5mn barrels per day in 2017, according to OPEC. We have been working on multiple projects in the region for the past decade in Saudi Arabia and the UAE but now we wanted a local presence. Once we decided where to set up the base, our choice was very clear ? Abu Dhabi because our primary operations cater to the oil and gas sector. In Saudi Arabia, our relationship with EPC contractor Tecnicas Reunidas has helped us in securing projects constantly. Back home, we are already at the top of our game and well settled in Europe in terms of competition and size of the market for projects. I have been running the company for more than five years and with operations going well in the Middle East, I decided it was time to move here.
Dubai too has fascinated me with its industrial and port activities. Now it is becoming clearer that we need to have one leg in the emirate, sooner than later.
TRME: What are the major projects COORDINADORA is working on in the Middle East?
JHM: Since our arrival 10 years ago in the Middle East, things have been going well for us. At the moment, we have taken on four projects that include Saudi Aramco?s Jazan Refinery, transportation of five refinery equipment each weighing 2,000-tonne for Fadhili gas project that will be scheduled for start in 2018 as well as air freight for Fadhili CHP plant project. We have also been awarded Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park project to transport the first lot of solar panels, which is a very big achievement for us. This also marks our first project in the UAE after the opening of the office in Abu Dhabi. Our fifth project will be Al BeAAT waste-to-heat recovery plant for Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer).
COORDINADORA is also looking at two very big projects in the region that are still under wraps.
TRME: COORDINADORA?s USP is transport engineering. Can you explain the concept?
JHM: I can proudly say that we are one of the very few companies, both in the Middle East and in the European Union that delivers engineering solutions for heavy cargo transportation. With our own engineering department, we plan, organise, execute and handle the transport of heavy cargoes. This benefits not only the customers through cost savings but also helps us maintain a high level of safety in operations we perform.
We have coined this concept Engineered Transport Management or ETM. After winning a project, the process begins with the preparation of a specific transport plan for every shipment, in which we analyse, calculate, evaluate and optimise the most appropriate solution for each scenario. Throughout the implementation, the plan is continuously updated and all the technical information is reviewed over and over again, with special emphasis on issues such as ship stability, lashing, ground strength, accelerations, vehicle stability, support surfaces on vehicles and vessels, crane capabilities, lifting methods, and so on. The process is complemented by the direct personal supervision of loading and transfer operations to be carried out during the transport to ensure that our transport plan and the calculations we made are accurately followed throughout the process. We even get our engineers to the customer premises to work with their technical department, to the manufacturing places and to the job site. It is not only about calculations but also about processes management, since our part of the job must integrate seamlessly within the customer?s processes, all paperwork included. Therefore, we integrate ourselves into the project, thus adding value to the customer?s final product. We help them plan and execute the project in the most convenient way possible. Basically, we provide end-to-end solutions.
To know what Juan H Madsen has to say about the opportunities in the freight industry in the Middle East, read the latest issue coming out in December 2017
