Managing World’s Evolving Energy Needs with ESCO – Karim Attiyah: Karim Attiyah is the Managing Director of ESCO (Emirates Specialized Contracting & Oilfield Services). He is a well-experienced professional entrepreneur focusing on the world’s growing energy needs. We interviewed him to learn more about his company and even got inspirational advice from him. Let’s get to it.
Getting Started
What’s the idea behind your company? We asked.
Karim Attiyah replied, “True to our name (ESCO), we’re a leading energy services company that helps our clients meet the world’s evolving energy needs. We use our specialist know-how and consultancy expertise to manage asset life cycles of energy facilities engineered for safety, optimal efficiency, and low emissions. Our operations depend heavily on our ability to attract, retain and lead the right skilled and experienced personnel. Core to our offering is our distinctive delivery-focused culture.”
We also asked him, “Do you have some advice for beginners?”
“I think the biggest motivation is to keep challenging yourself and do the time. In order to stay motivated, you must actually like what you do. Venture outside of your comfort zone and ALWAYS be on time!” He shares.
The Roots
Further, we got more interested in understanding his company, so we asked, “What are the company’s roots?”
With that, he said, “Our Natural Heritage Protecting the UAE’s natural heritage for future generations has always been our Founding Father’s mandate for a greener tomorrow. The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan led the massive undertaking of increasing the mangrove population through a forestation program. Mangroves are an important part of our country’s heritage and need to be protected. They are equally essential in our lives today as they did historically. They were crucial to our ancestors’ way of life, providing them with building materials, fuel, and fodder for their livestock. We recognize the role that mangroves play in capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gasses (GHG), protecting the Abu Dhabi shorelines from coastal erosion, and providing a safe habitat for marine life.
Our forefathers lived and survived in this environment on land and in the sea. They could do so only because they recognized the need to conserve it to take from it only what they needed to live and preserve it for succeeding generations.’ – The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, UAE’s Founding Father.”
Teamwork & Success – Side-by-side
When understanding a business, it’s crucial to understand its views on teamwork. So our next question to Karim was, “What makes the team successful, in your opinion?”
He replies, “ESCO is a performance-driven organization powered by our workforce of exceptional women and men. Investing in our company’s human capital will ensure that ESCO remains a pillar of the UAE’s social and economic development for decades to come.
We are committed to hiring the most exceptional UAE National and expatriate talent available. We are committed to developing top talent by;
- Communication and influence – The capacity to present clear transparent, and effective two-way communication to expand understanding and influence others.
- Foster collaboration – The ability to work effectively with people and build relationships to facilitate mutually beneficial outcomes.
- Develop talent – Motivates others by providing direction and inspiration. Continuously seeks to develop value-adding capabilities and competencies of self and others through coaching, constructive feedback, learning, and development opportunities.
- Problem-solving & decision-making – Utilizes a systematic, logical, data-driven approach to investigate problems. Develop practical solutions based on sound judgment and make timely decisions.
- Drive excellence – The drive to meet or exceed performance objectives and deliver business results. Focuses on stakeholder satisfaction, both internal/ external, and delivers a quality service or product to the agreed standards.
- Planning & organizing – Plans ahead and works in a systematic and organized way. Monitors progress towards objectives.
- Strategic perspective & commercial acumen – Looks at issues with a broad view to achieving corporate objectives from medium to long term. Thinks ahead and prepares for the future. Understands external expectations and influences on the organization. Identifies common goals and interests from a commercial perspective.
- Change & Innovation – The capacity to be flexible and agile and constantly seek innovative ways to approach job requirements and challenges to adjust rapidly to new situations & organizational changes and implement new ideas to drive ESCO’s business objectives.”
Team Motivation At Its Best
How important are employees’ energy levels to the success of Your Company?
“Energy levels are maintained by culture. A strong and clearly defined company culture offers substantial benefits for our people and the company. Our people feel closely aligned with ESCO’s culture and feel comfortable and happier in the workplace. A sense of belonging is clearly defined, and our people treat each other genuinely as part of the ESCO family.” he shares.
After hearing this, we were curious about how ESCO motivates them. Employees. So we asked Karim, “How do you plan to motivate your team to go the extra mile?”
“At ESCO, we host a rewards and benefits program. We also include public announcements for achievements, milestones, and several other award schemes such as employee of the month.” he shares.
Apart from teamwork, there are several other aspects of a company that helps them grow, one of which is strengths to tackle challenges. So, we asked, “What keeps your company moving forward even during challenges?”
“We recently faced challenges around oil prices, energy transition, and covid-19 pandemic. ESCO’s resilience, diversity, and versatility allow us to continue to work successfully as an SME (Small to Medium Enterprise). We worked in several sectors around our core in oil and gas offshore and managed to continue with as little impact as possible. The timing for our digital transformation was crucial for this success. We were able to understand challenges quickly, plan efficiently and act effectively.” he says.
Technology & Responsibility For Energy’s Future
How do you think technology is leading to changes in businesses? Do you feel it’s helping your company grow?
“Taking responsibility for the future of energy. True to our name ESCO is an Energy Services Company. The energy transition is at the core of our strategy creating long-term value for our clients, stakeholders, and teams.
We are committed to being a net zero company by 2030 – and even as we work to decarbonize our own business, we’re helping other organizations and industries around the world to do the same.
Our expertise and experience in consulting and operating complex energy infrastructure are vital to the new energy sector. Our ongoing contribution to policy development and regulatory frameworks is also recognized and valued by governments and key stakeholders around the world.
We take a proactive approach to environmental protection and are committed to reducing our carbon footprint. ESCO drives sustainability by championing ocean integrity, and we are fully committed to biodiversity protection. We believe the power for change lies in our hands – given we all have a choice. To succeed, we need to find ways to synchronize the economic system of humankind with the ecosystem of nature and make environmental protection fiscally lucrative for pacesetting Aviation and Oil & Gas companies.” continues Karim.
Adapting To Digitalization
We also wanted to know Karim’s views on adapting to digitalization, so we asked him, “How is your company adapting to digitalization?”
“ESCO is at the forefront of digital transformation with a dedicated digitalization and innovation team in the UAE. We aim to take the promise of digitalization and make it real for our customers’ operations. We combine our extensive experience in a diverse range of technologies with our core disciplines of inspection, auditing, and maintenance to ensure that, in partnership with our customers, we realize the value that digitalization can bring. We operate across the UAE’s most demanding industry sectors, enhancing the efficiency of assets, ensuring a high level of availability, and reducing maintenance costs with our digital capabilities. Digitalization benefits we can offer:
- 20% Increase in work productivity.
- 20% Increase in the effectiveness of the entire asset.
- 30% Reduction in maintenance costs.
- 25% Reduction in unplanned downtime.
- Predicting possible defects improved.” said Karim.
Making Digitalization Work
How do you make digitalization work? We asked.
He replied, “We enable the successful digital transformation of our clients with state-of-the-art digital solutions and our deep understanding of the industry. We develop and implement our tailored solutions and accompany our clients on their digital journey with our agile, diverse, cross-functional team.
With our digital spirit and determined passion, we make a difference and ensure
measurable, sustainable results to take your industrial plants to the next level.
The first step when considering any digitalization project is to build the value case. In most instances, the best place to start is your existing plant data, assessing the process as it currently operates and understanding all aspects of how it is monitored, operated, and maintained, together with the associated costs. Applying data analytics to existing data in this way can be a powerful way to highlight opportunities for improvement within the process.”
We also asked Karim to describe more about ESCO and its services. So, he continues:
ESCO and How our digital solutions can help you
“Process optimization
ESCO Asset Performance (ESCO-AP®) tool is the digital go-to platform for applications in the oil and gas process industry! It uses smart data, IoT, and AI-based solutions to help you maximize data-based efficiency.
Additionally, with this tool, we can build solutions based on our customer’s asset data providing actionable insights and implementing improvements specific to their business using combined competencies of software development, data science, and domain knowledge.
Plant visualization
We offer Google street view with ESCO 360 ASSET®, which is low-budget, fast, and approachable. With this, we capture industrial sites digitally and combine this with 3D point data from the site itself. In no time, this becomes a transparent information model in HD. This allows virtual equipment to be tagged with extra information and linked to existing databases. The virtual walkthrough with ESCO 360 ASSET® can be used for many purposes. The visualization for tender packages, visualization of equipment for training, safety inspections, maintenance objectives, and turnarounds.
Comprehensive Digital Reporting and Data Analytics. App-based, Operational Cloud Technologies by ESCO.
ESCO Sky InspectionsTrack® is designed for Dropped Objects Systems, Lifting Gear, NDT, Cranes, Winches, Forklifts, and Other Rig Equipment Inspections.
The software contains all the per-defined data sets of dropdowns and inspection prompts/checklists for the items to make the process easy for the inspection teams. These pre-defined data sets can be managed through a web control panel by the Technical/QHSE team. ESCO Sky InspectionsTrack® consists of Mobile Application and Web Portal. All the data collected on mobile devices it’s stored locally and automatically syncs to the server through web APIs over the internet. The system shows all the statistics of synced items/none sync items to the users on the mobile APP dashboard.
Clients can view the reports online through a web portal with the following features.
- Easy Navigation to Certificates/Registers and other Reports.
- Easy Search for items and historical trends.
- Assets and Corrective Actions graphical comparisons.
- Clients can close out the corrective actions online.
- Clients can add a new asset management item and view separate registers.
- Clients can print the reports into PDFs with different criteria.
- Clients can manage their users with different access levels.
HELIOS®
Asset life cycle management system
HeliOS Platform provides a technologically innovative solution to completing Inspections and Audits in the Oil & Gas industry’s challenging environments. It provides a framework to manage, maintain and inspect your critical assets to help maintain asset integrity.
Using the latest Zone 1 and Zone 2 ruggedized tablets, the HeliOS suite of services utilizes RFID Tags for Asset Identification through a pre-defined Inspection process with photographic evidence of inspection.
RFID is a method of positively identifying an asset through a very rugged microchip read by a very low radio signal. Inspection and maintenance data is then synchronized to a cloud-based portal to provide near real-time reporting to onshore management.
The multi-level security framework ensures your inspection data is secure. The platform hosts the UAE’s Offshore Helicopter Limitations List, detailing Helicopter Landing Area Limitations.”
Connect with Karim Attiyah on LinkedIn.
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