Zaun strikes black gold in Oman pilots
Zaun Limited is supplying the perimeter security for two prestigious booster stations in Oman for Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the foremost exploration and production company in the Sultanate. It accounts for more than 70% of the country's crude oil production and nearly all of its natural gas supply.
PDO operates in a concession area of about 100,000 sq km, one third of Oman’s geographical area; has more than 125 producing fields; more than 5,000 producing wells; and a workforce of about 6,000 PDO staff and more than 35,000 contractors. It is 60% owned by the Government of Oman with Royal Dutch Shell (34%), Total (4%) and Partex (2%) the other shareholders.
Zaun is supplying almost 9km of HiSec 358 fencing and a large number of PAS 68 crash rated entry and exit gates, which will fill 24 40-foot containers, of which half have already left Zaun's UK manufacturing base.
Zaun's premier British-made fencing, embedded operations in the region and superior customer service won them the pilot projects.
The fencing and gates will be integrated with razor wire, PIDs and CCTV to form inner and outer cordons around the Hubara oil booster station in the south of Oman and its sister Nahada booster station in the north, about 400km from Muscat towards the Saudi border.
The purpose of the booster stations is to pressurise the crude oil in pipes buried under the Omani desert as it is fed from the fields into the main oil line for export.
Work is proceeding apace at the Nahada site though they have had to overcome on-site challenges, such as the formation of wadis when rivers spring up in flash floods in the desert and violent sand storms that can shred the coatings on the fence panels.
Jeremy Knight, head of Middle East operations for Zaun, said: "Even though these are only pilot projects, they constitute a sizable contract for our Middle East operation. PDO is an extremely important and influential client for Zaun as they are well known in the region for setting the benchmark for the industry."
Work on both sites is expected to complete later in 2014, when PDO has plans to roll out security on further sites across the country.
