The journey was thorny, full of documents and complicated processes, and it took almost 2 years.

Long preparations in Dubai

At the beginning there was a question how to succeed in the Middle East. As part of the long-term strategy of the company to entry into new markets, ARMATURY Group decided to open a new branch office in Dubai. The whole process of opening new branch office was demanding both in documentation and time. It was necessary to provide many different documents, statements, and even a statement of the personal electricity bill of the statutory representative. After lots of hard work and many visits in Dubai, the branch office, which is officially called ARMATURY Group DMCC was able to be established.

Approved ADNOC supplier

Necessary condition for cooperation with local companies is completion of a supplier´s audit. ARMATURY Group has successfully met the quality conditions of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Dubai Petroleum. Since 2019 company ARMATURY Group is an approved supplier for these three companies. So, it has thus proved its ability to meet even the most demanding quality requirements.

Thousands of valves for oil wells

Intensive work on the local market, a lot of negotiations and elaboration of the offers began to bear fruit. The result of this whole effort is a three-year contract for the supply of valves for the largest oil company in the United Arab Emirates, ADNOC. In total, we delivered in 2020 2 263 pieces of valves to this destination! Most of them were valves made from stainless steel alloy, from Inconel and Incoloy, part of delivery also consisted of cryogenic ball valves with stem extensions. These valves were heading to the artificial island Upper Zakum, where 450 new oil wells are being built.

Inconel and Incoloy

The hard part of these deliveries was the production itself, which was very demanding from technical point of view, mainly due to nickel alloys machining, which we have rarely worked with before. Our classic methods of machining were not effective enough, so we started to ask our suppliers for an assortment of tools for Inconel (Alloy 62) and Incoloy (Alloy 825). At the end we found the way and machines to machine these alloys. Just for fun, the production time for these special materials is up to five times longer then for classic stainless steel.

The outlook for 2021 is positive. We would like to supply another 2 000 pieces of valves. We believe that our way to Middle East will still be successful and will bring us new customers.

For more information: Petr Bolík, Sales Director of Western Territory