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Aramco Asia-Korea (AAK) hosted the “Saudi Aramco Contractors Forum” in coordination with Saudi Aramco's Project Management Office Department and Procurement and Supply Chain Management in Seoul.
The forum was designed to welcome Korean engineering, procurement, and construction companies' participation in Saudi Aramco's upcoming mega-projects and to enhance the company's contractor lists, general bid slates, and IK-OOK lump-sum turnkey master screening lists by expanding existing contractor registration areas and identifying new construction contractors from Korea and Asia.
More than 100 representatives of 27 engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) companies from Korea, Japan, India, Australia, and Indonesia participated in the forum.
learning more about opportunities
“The main focus of this forum is to provide the opportunity for you to understand more about Saudi Aramco's diverse portfolio of projects and share the information you need to prequalify and register your companies,” said Fahad A. Al-Sahali, AAK representative director. “Such a forum is a clear indication of Saudi Aramco's intentions to pursue a massive investment program over the next 10 years.”
In a keynote address, Ahmad A. Al Sa'adi, senior vice president of Technical Services, said the forum is an integral part of Saudi Aramco's process to introduce business to our partners and EPC industries, and also to help foster a relationship between Saudi Aramco and the partners.
“With the Kingdom's new direction set out in Saudi Vision 2030, we are now completely in a different whole new era,” said Al Sa'adi. “This strategic initiative has elevated our role as a leader among champions of economic and social transformation. We have many industrial and civil infrastructure projects underway, ranging from maritime facilities to residential housing as well as special purpose of investment such as the King Salman Energy Park. Especially, we would like to encourage Korean contractors to partner with us in executing projects efficiently with cutting-edge technologies.”
three key areas for contractors
He also highlighted three critical important areas contractors must be aware of.
“One of the most significant ongoing improvement efforts has been the implementation of an optimized, front-end loading system defined as the Capital Management System. By enhancing upfront planning and definition and clarifying stakeholders' roles and responsibilities, Saudi Aramco hopes to improve its project process governance and project performance.”
The second initiative to enhance project execution, he said, was the introduction of Enterprise Project Management — a platform introduced to provide a structured project management business process by the use of standardized and integrated information systems for the efficient and consistent delivery of Saudi Aramco's capital projects.
Al Sa'adi also said Saudi Aramco plans to leverage new technologies to support project execution. “One key area we're focusing on is digital transformation. Our objective is to capitalize on digitization to support project execution to both expedite project schedules and reduce any rework.”
During the forum, four different presentations were delivered by Saudi Aramco specialists, followed by an open discussion and question-and-answer session: “In-Kingdom Total Value Add (iktva) Program” by Ayman Al-Ghamdi, supervisor of the Supplier Solution Center Unit; “Saudi Aramco General Bid Slates” by Mishari Al-Eisa, Market Research engineer; “Saudi Aramco's Registration and Prequalification for Service Suppliers” by Erick M. Bethune-Mitchell and Khaled N. Moqati, Saudi Aramco Contracting representatives; and “Construction Business Opportunities” by Abdullah Al-Seflan, Contract Coordination engineer.
one-on-one sessions
The forum continued with a one-on-one meeting session with potential contractors to cover in-depth discussions of their prequalification for Saudi Aramco general bid slates.
On the sideline of the two-day forum, Al Sa'adi held one-on-one meetings with top management from major Korean EPCs to enhance collaboration, cement ties, and promote the iktva program. He also visited the head offices of four major Korean EPCs and met with some potential investors who shared their in-Kingdom localization plans.
Saudi Aramco is implementing capital programs, and efficient project execution is an essential element of the success of the programs. AAK supports these capital programs throughout the project life cycle by encouraging EPC companies' active participation in the Saudi Aramco bidding process, promoting iktva, the localization of business opportunities, processing ad hoc sourcing requests, providing key suppliers' workload status to Project Management, and expediting delivery of materials. AAK and other Asia affiliates are committed to offering continuous support for improving bid competitiveness and enhancing project capabilities of Saudi Aramco organizations.