Schlumberger, one of the world's leading oil services companies, said it has signed a deal with state oil giant Saudi Aramco to develop a hitech industrial manufacturing centre within the King Salman Energy Park at Dhahran in Saudi Arabia.

The announcement was made at a ground-breaking ceremony at the King Salman Energy Park, being developed and operated by Saudi Aramco.

Schlumberger, which is a key anchor tenant at the park, said the new manufacturing plant will come up over a 500,000-sq-m area of land allocated for energy-related industries.

The new unit will manufacture products for drilling, exploration and production, as well as midstream, it stated.

Welcoming the move, Mohammed Al Qahtani, the senior vice-president (Upstream) at Saudi Aramco, said: "Schlumberger is the ‘first mover’ to come onto the King Salman Energy Park, and we extend our warmest welcome. This initiative underlines Saudi Arabia’s key position as a regional and global energy industry hub."

"Significantly, Schlumberger is bringing major manufacturing capacity to the kingdom, with the potential to develop export markets. This presence will attract additional tenants to the park, bringing the jobs and investment that are crucial to both Saudi Aramco’s iktva development program, and the kingdom’s Vision 2030," he stated.

The first phase of the facility will be completed in the second quarter of 2018, which will bring Schlumberger land rig manufacturing to the kingdom.

Paal Kibsgaard, the chairman and CEO of Schlumberger, said: "The new industrial manufacturing centre will collocate our upstream and midstream manufacturing in the kingdom and complements the footprint Schlumberger has built over many years."

"We believe our commitment puts Schlumberger in a position to attract the best local talent, to grow within the kingdom, and to export within the region," he added.-TradeArabia News Service