Technology plays key role for ADNOC L&S’ integrated services

Ahmed Al Shehhi, Senior Vice President of ADNOC L&S speaks to Pipeline Magazine’s Nadia Saleem about the offshore logistics and services market and the company’s plans to grow efficiently

ADNOC Logistics & Services is a subsidiary company of ADNOC.  The company has ambitious plans to incorporate technology for growth in its integrated services in the region.

Ahmed Al Shehhi, Senior Vice President, Offshore Services,  ADNOC L&S said at the side-lines of ADIPEC 2019 that he is ready to invest in technology to provide a complete chain of activities to clients and to achieve that, he has put several initiatives in motion.

“We found different operating models that would give a lot of value to clients – this was predominantly rendering services as integrated services. Today, ADNOC L&S has marine resources, material handling, warehousing and chemicals, but providing these as integrated services, we are more efficient and competitive on cost and at the same time, reduce the margins for our clients,” Al Shehhi said.

ADNOC L&S has implemented warehouse management technology that connects onshore and offshore warehousing services, allowing the end user to trace materials from start and finish digitally. Also, through optimised supply fleet management within the door-to-door supply chain services, different materials are being sent on a single vessel, reducing unproductive time and helping the company to do more with less resources.

Al Shehhi said the company is looking at tempered growth, so that it is in-line with the needs of the clients and the market as a whole. “We want to build growth with partners in the market through a collaboration strategy. Additionally, building in-country-value (ICV) is important to us, so we want foreign investment to build local strength and improve employment of UAE nationals,” he said.

“Our business strategy is based on the basis of business continuity – whereby we have in-house resources, but we also work with partners to be more agile in terms of planning capacity,” he added.

ADNOC L&S expects considerable growth in the offshore logistics market, focused on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain in the wider Arabian market.  “Our plan is to see how far we can go to absorb the extra demand through our efficiencies rather than through adding capacity,” he said.

ADNOC L&S is banking on technologies that can help in the decision-making process. The company is currently building a logistics operation centre, where stakeholders will be supported by technology for on-spot decisions for things like traffic management for optimised safety and operations.

“AI and data analysis is the future, that’s why we’re building this operations centre. Following the data collection, as a next step, the system will be integrated so that AI can play a tangible role,” Al Shehhi said.

Al Shehhi said that while the technology in use doesn’t meet the expectations, the market is not ready yet. By using global benchmarks on digital solutions, the company is trying to influence demand from clients in order to bring innovation to the offshore industry to effectively deliver on efficiencies.

“We’re being cost conscious - that’s why we have adopted a big belief in technologies, because we believe they can really help us in finding the loss-making and low-utilisation areas– so we can fill this gap and enhance our efficiencies,” Al Shehhi said.

ADNOC L&S, acts as a sub-contractor for EPC contractors. Its main clients are ADNOC Group companies, as well as external customers. Al Shehhi said plans are in place to expand to downstream projects, even as it has global clients for its shipping business.