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Qatar Today Editorials - GE steps up its interest in the region
Continuing its global pattern of excelling in every pie that it lays its hands on, GE Oil and Gas has added a new service arm to facilitate inspection and overhauling of gas turbines.
By Ahmed Lotfy
With the goal of enhancing its contribution to the oil and gas industry in Qatar and the region, General Electric Oil & Gas has taken its business a step further by opening a new service centre at Ras Laffan Support Services Zone.
Equipped with advanced hot gas component repair systems, the Centre will facilitate the complete inspection and overhauling of gas turbine modules up to 30 mega watts.
The total plant encompasses more than 36,000 sq m with a covered area of 4,200 sq m and an additional 600 sq m dedicated to offices.
It is expected to hire as many as 40 people by the end of 2008.
Qatar Today spoke to Nabil Habayeb, President and CEO, GE, Middle East, who highlighted the company's commitment to the needs of Qatar Ð now one of the fastest growing centres for the oil and gas industry worldwide.
A Milestone Habayeb says that the set of macro goals is beyond the opening of the new centre. "It will establish our service capability in Qatar, so we can serve our technology and customers in a timely manner.
"Qatar has invested a lot in developing the LNG technology, the core of which is from GE.
"Through this investment, we show our commitment to the LNG industry, to Qatar and to the region.
"In Qatar, we focus on oil and gas, building infrastructure (power and water), aviation, health care, education and industrialisation."
A Key Region "This region the Middle East and Africa - is one of the fastest-growing for GE in the world. It is clearly because the needs of the region complement our solutions, technology, and expertise.
"GE has more than 55 percent of its revenues coming from outside the US.
"This is why we invest in regions like the Middle East, Africa, India or China. In the first quarter of 2007, this region grew by about 53 percent in revenues. And over 2007, we generated total $8 billion in revenues, up 45 percent compared with 2006. And we received orders of over $10 billion.
"Now the Middle East and Africa contributes around four percent of GE's total revenues. We are going much faster than other regions - a growth we expect to continue for many years."
"This region is one of the fastest-growing for GE in the world...it contributes around four percent of our total revenues."
GE expects full-year revenues of $13 billion by 2010 as it gets more involved in infrastructure development and projects in the healthcare and aviation sectors.
The Green Revolution Habayeb says GE has taken the advantage of the region's construction boom to widen its business interests.
"The construction area is very important. People are thinking about green buildings and homes and we provide a lot of green products, ranging from appliances to lighting to sensing to waste water treatment, to district cooling.
In May 2007, GE announced that its Ecomagination initiative had launched 11 new products and services, including a hybrid locomotive and a carbon offset company. In 2005, the company set an original goal to grow revenues from its Ecomagination products from $6 billion in 2004 to $20 billion in 2010.
Now, the forecasts are that it will surpass $20 billion by 2009, and is consequently raising the annual Ecomagination revenue goal to $25 billion by 2010.
And planning for this was done in 2007 when it invested $1.1 billion in cleaner technology research and development, closing in on its $1.5 billion annual Ecomagination R&D; target by 2010.
Solid figures GE has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and improve the energy efficiency of its operations in three ways Ð to reduce its absolute emissions 1 percent by 2012; reduce the intensity of these emissions to 30 percent by 2008; and improve energy efficiency 30 percent by the end of 2012 (all versus 2004 levels).
As a diversified technology, media and financial services company, GE generated double-digit earnings and revenue growth ($173 billion in revenues and $22.5 billion of earnings), and $23.3 billion in cash. Over the past four years, its average earnings growth rate has been 14 percent per year.
It traces its beginnings back to Thomas A. Edison, who established Edison Electric Light Company in 1878. And now it is the only company in the Dow Jones Industrial Index which was also included in the original index in 1896 n
Nabil Habayeb says that Qatar has invested a lot in developing the LNG technology, the core of which is from GE
This article is reproduced with special permission from Qatar Today - Qatar's only news, business and lifestyle magazine
