Kong provided an overview of Samsung’s operations in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East with special reference to the newly opened Samsung Naffora Techno Valley in Jubail. He also dealt with the Saudization plan and the growing capability of the company. Saudi Arabia, which remains a key focus for Samsung Engineering, has been one of the top contributors to the company’s profitability, he said.
Kong said about 70 percent of Samsung Engineering’s activity in the Kingdom and the region at large is in hydrocarbon sector with around 30 percent in the industrial and infrastructure sector such as power generation and metallurgy.
The company, he said, has emerged as a major engineering, procurement, construction and project management (EPC & PM) specialist in global market, targeting a revenue of $8 billion for 2011.
Kong said Samsung Engineering had also developed its portfolio by entering into the metallurgy business through the award of the $1.2 billion aluminum smelter contract.
He said Maaden Aluminum, a joint venture between Saudi Arabia’s national mining company Maaden and the US-based Alcoa, has awarded the aluminum rolling mill, casthouse and port facility projects.
The aluminum plants will be built in Ras Al-Khair in northern Saudi Arabia, and has a planned capacity of 750,000 tons of aluminum per year.
He pointed out that Samsung Engineering would complete engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning services on a lumpsum turn-key basis with project completion set for July 2013.
“This new order demonstrates Samsung Engineering capabilities in the metallurgy and mining sector and follows the successfully mechanical completion of the Ammonia plant contract with Maaden, which was awarded in 2007,” said Kong.
Referring to the mega Shaybah project, he said the $2.76 billion contract for all the four packages of the Shaybah NGL (Natural Gas Liquid) project was awarded to Samsung Engineering a few months back.
This NGL facility will be located 800 km southeast of Dhahran in Shaybah and is expected to secure feedstock supplies for the Kingdom’s hydrocarbon business.
The complex will produce 750,000 barrels of oil per day, process gas of 2,400 MMSCFD and recover 200,000 barrels of NGL per day.
“This project is a significant win for Samsung Engineering as it is its fourth Saudi Aramco project since 2007 and also because it is a rare case for a client to award all packages to one EPC contractor,” he added. Not only this, Samsung Engineering has also been awarded a $600 million power plant from Saudi Aramco recently. Due to the rapidly growing gas demand, Saudi Aramco is developing the largest gas plant in the Kingdom as part of its Wasit Gas Development Program.
The cogeneration plant to be built in Jubail, will provide 750MV of electricity and high pressure steam at 550 tons per hour in the gas processing facility. Samsung Engineering will work on a lumpsum turn-key basis, with mechanical completion to be set up in April 2014. “We are honored to be selected for such prestigious and integral projects in the Kingdom, and we are especially looking forward to prove our capabilities in the industrial and infrastructure projects,” said Kong.
“With the new Samsung Naffora Techno Valley serving as our Middle East headquarters, we hope to provide more client support and increase productivity for these new projects so that we may achieve our goals,” he added.
According to him, the Naffora Techno Valley in Eastern Province will go a long way in imparting training and necessary skills to Saudi manpower especially in the field of engineering.
The facility will also help Samsung and other companies to cut their reliance on foreign workers.
