ACCENTURE has launched a new center of excellence in Al-Khobar to provide services and skills for petroleum refinery and petrochemical companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The Accenture Resources Manufacturing Center of Excellence will help meet increasing demand for services in the Gulf region including designing, building, deploying and operating integrated refinery information systems, manufacturing operations and management systems. Providing end-to-end services ranging from IT strategy, solution design and engineering to deployment and operations management, the Center of Excellence will bring together insights, ideas and innovation, backed by Accenture's worldwide network of centers of excellence and plant and commercial services teams. For companies wanting to build, operate and maintain effective production plants, the center will develop new business processes and information systems, deliver design and construction phases of an expansion project, and manage future operations after commissioning and start-up. “This investment in the Accenture Resources Manufacturing Center of Excellence will help companies in the oil and gas and petrochemical sector navigate the industrial challenges they're facing,” said Omar Boulos, Accenture's regional managing director for the Middle East. “Energy companies are seeing growing skill and talent shortages; they face cost pressures and the need to invest in new technologies—both of which are driven by ever-growing global competition and the need to become more operationally efficient. Accenture's deep experience in these areas is now complemented by on-the-ground talent and experience, offers an effective solution for one of the world's fastest-growing markets seeking to develop refining and chemicals capacity with local talent from various engineering and downstream backgrounds.” The Accenture Resources Manufacturing Center of Excellence will combine extensive, on-the-ground industry experience with innovative, vendor-neutral solutions to help the Gulf's oil, gas and petrochemical companies build and operate plants and assets in a reliable, safe and cost-effective manner. Accenture's offerings comprise solutions for engineering, project and data management; core plant operations; environment, health and safety; enabling services; and industrial and automation capabilities. The center offers a “pick and choose” portfolio of solutions for a plant's entire life cycle. — SG
