After years of planning, Baker Hughes and Saudi Aramco officially opened The Baker Hughes Dhahran Research and Technology Center
The newly constructed technology and research center focuses on research and development of new technologies to unlock the potential of unconventional resources.
Massive technological advances
Baker Hughes President and Chief Executive Officer Martin Craighead said: "Baker Hughes has made massive technological advances in unconventional resources, and as a result we have completely redefined the baseline," Craighead said.
"We recognize that the key to success and performance in unconventionals lies in the decisions made in the early phases of development. At Baker Hughes, we have established a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to understanding and analyzing shale reserves that allows us to model and predict how reservoirs will perform."
Long term commitment
Amin H. Nasser, Senior Vice President, Upstream, Saudi Aramco said: "We congratulate Baker Hughes on the opening of the unconventional resources research and technology center, which clearly demonstrates a long term commitment in meeting the world's energy challenges. For Saudi Aramco, the center is an example of our strategy to capitalize and strengthen mutually beneficial collaborative opportunities with international companies, and additionally, it will help to further leverage and develop our intellectual capital and technological capabilities."
Application-specific solutions
The new research and technology center brings together the competencies of Baker Hughes' engineers and scientists with those from the oil and gas industry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals to develop application-specific solutions. The center is strategically located at the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Science Park at Dhahran Techno-Valley.
State-of-art laboratories
Offering state-of-the-art rock and fluids laboratories, the center provides the equipment required to further the understanding of the complex science and technology involved in developing unconventional resources.
"By first understanding the reservoir, we have had great success in accessing shale gas in a cost efficient manner in North America, ensuring stability and enabling further economic growth by assisting with the supply of energy to a growing world population," Craighead added.
Research facilities
"While our new research and technology center addresses specific challenges unique to unconventional resources, it also will provide research facilities and collaboration opportunities for other applications."
The new technology center further expands Baker Hughes' infrastructure in the Kingdom. The operations center houses labs, offices, repair and maintenance facilities, as well as a remote collaboration center.
