As part of HERNIS strategy and focus in North America, HERNIS has recently signed an agreement with ECN S de RL de CV (ECN), located in Ciudad del Carmen, to explore the market potentials in Mexico. HERNIS finds this alliance very important enabling us to meet customers with good solutions and backed with the proper professional and technical background as well as local knowledge on oil business/activity in Mexico. “We are excited to develop the collaboration between our companies», says Øystein Sandberg, Managing Director at HERNIS US Inc.
Gunnar Ekmann who is heading the HERNIS activity in Mexico says that ECN is very pleased to have the opportunity to offer its services as Sales Agent for HERNIS Scan Systems in Mexico. This newly formed partnership represents together more than 50 years experience in the international oil and shipping industry and an in-depth understanding of the Mexican market. With two Mexicans and one Norwegian as owners of the company, Gunnar Ekmann states that “we think ECN should be in a unique position to bridge the possible cultural or other differences between Norway and Mexico and be able to secure contracts and sales for HERNIS Scan Systems in the marine, offshore and onshore business segments, and otherwise assist HERNIS in establishing a presence in Mexico.”
ECN does not represent other principals yet, and the company’s strategy is currently to focus 100% on introducing the HERNIS CCTV solutions in Mexico and achieve the market position these products deserve. The work of constructing an ECN web site is starting in these days, which will increase HERNIS’ exposure to the Spanishspeaking world in a significant way. Gunnar Ekmann has more than 30 years experience in the international offshore industry; the last 15 dedicated to sales and business development. He is living in Mexico and has been assisting Norwegian offshore technology companies sell their services and products to PEMEX. He came to Mexico in 1996, while working for Schlumberger. His long career with this company includes a number of years in the USA, Venezuela, Nigeria and Norway, both in technical and managerial positions. He started in the oil industry developing software for navigation and positioning of offshore rigs using data from satellites. He holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Oslo and has presented papers at several international industry conferences, last time in June in Mexico.
Benjamin Gabriel Negroe Cervera has more than 20 years experience in the international Agency, Ship Brokering and offshore industry. During the last 16 years he has been responsible for the Management and General Direction of CANEGA in Mexico, providing full services & representations to various national and foreign Drilling, Tanker and Offshore companies. Benjamin Gabriel Negroe Cervera holds a Business Science degree from the Tampa College in the USA and has attended courses in Petroleum Tank Ship Operation from The World Trade Institute.
Bernardo Cuervo has 4 years experience from the offshore oil drilling industry in Mexico. During this period he has worked for Perforadora Dolphin Mexicana and Mexdrill Offshore, where he managed and supervised the drilling contracts with PEMEX. He is also an experienced translator between English and Spanish.
In addition to the three owners, ECN has recently contracted Arjumand León Russi, an electronics engineer and Ana Cristina Santos Mendoza to take care of the sales in Cd del Carmen and Villahermosa, respectively. Both these places are important PEMEX operational centers for offshore and onshore oil activity.
The Mexican market represents its unique challenges. All oil and gas exploration, production, as well as refining and distribution are being taken care of by the national oil company PEMEX. Due to heavy taxation of PEMEX in the past, there has been a systematic underinvestment in exploration and various other sectors (for example maintenance, safety and environment) by the company during the last 20 years. However, insufficient hydrocarbon reposition rate in recent years and the dramatic consequence of a declining production of major fields have produced a push (since 2000) towards increased investments, accelerated implementation of new technologies and more risk taking. Nowadays, as a continuing effort to improve its standards, PEMEX is putting a strong focus on safety and security, and thereby preventing the number of accidents, robberies and environmental events happen. For the HERNIS products all this is good news and means that Mexico will be one of the largest markets on the entire globe; with its 200 offshore installations, onshore well sites in the order of thousands, 6 refineries, 12 gas processing centers, 8 petrochemical plants, 77 storage and distribution centers and 20 gas distribution terminals, this shows that the potential within PEMEX is huge. At the time of writing this article we are particularly excited about the news from the Mexican government that PEMEX will make record investments in physical Infrastructure in 2010, surpassing 2009 which was also a record year, by more than 19%.
Øystein Sandberg newly came on his first visit to Mexico and PEMEX for several meetings, where he, Arjumand Léon Russi and Gunnar Ekmann stated making a HERNIS product presentation to a large group of PEMEX engineers from the two marine region headquarters in Cd del Carmen. A group of people from a third operational center, Dos Bocas, joined the meeting via video conference. PEMEX is currently evaluating their need for CCTV systems for the marine installations so the interest was considerable. They pointed out particular problems with security, apart from increased safety needs, on a number of unmanned platforms that are exposed to pirate activity. We had meetings in Villahermosa where Ana Cristina Santos Mendoza joined in and assisted us. This time we met with PEMEX people from the South Region that is taking care of the onshore oil activity in Southern Mexico. They mentioned having some of the same challenges as the marine regions, i.e. unwanted visitors to well sites and pipelines. The next step will now be to fully understand how PEMEX is acquiring products such as the HERNIS CCTV systems. They already have a number of cameras purchased through integrators, but the experience is variable when it comes to reliability and service.
With all the above in mind we are convinced that HERNIS Scan Systems’ products should be of great interest to PEMEX, other state monopolies (such as CFE) and the private industry in general.
