Amec and Fluor join for Iraq
2 May 2003
Contractors Fluor Daniel and Amec have formed a joint venture to undertake contracts for reconstructing Iraq’s oil industry.
The venture, to be called Fluor/Amec, intends to bid for contracts when the US Army Corps of Engineers invites offers in the coming weeks and months.
Fluor/Amec will be 51 per cent owned by the US company. The companies have a recent history of working together, with joint projects underway in the US, Canada, Angola, South Korea and the Philippines since 1998. This gives the venture ’proven management and execution techniques with the ability to rapidly mobilise at an international level,’ say the companies’ chief executives, Sir Peter Mason of Amec and Alan Boeckmann of Fluor.
Boeckmann adds that the firms have extensive knowledge of ’upgrading, refurbishment, overhauls and the re-instatement of complex capital assets - all critical to quickly restoring Iraq’s oil production capacity.’
Their experience is also regional, says Mason. ’Fluor and Amec have together 100 years experience of operating in the Middle East and a great deal of Iraqi knowledge,’ he says. ’This joint venture will be able to benefit from the strong relationships that each parent company has with all the major multinational and national oil companies in the region.’
The companies intend to employ ’a significant percentage’ of Iraqis in their projects. As well as seeking qualified and experienced engineers, they will also undertake training of non-oil field personnel for long-term careers in the industry.v Halliburton, the company formerly run by US Vice-President Dick Cheney, has said that it has only received orders totalling some $50million for reconstruction in Iraq.
The contracts went to its subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, for extinguishing oilfield fires.
