Interview

'KBR Sees Significant Growth and Opportunity in India'

Posted on 28 January, 2010 | Tags: KBR, KBR in India, test

KBR ,a leading Engineering and Construction Company has a strong legacy of technology and offers cutting edge solutions across various industry verticals. To further strengthen their position in India, the company has recently inaugurated India office in Gurgaon. Jaspal Singh, India Head and Director Operations, KBR shares his outlook towards the growth of brand KBR through an email interview with CEW.

Jaspal singh
India Head and Director Operations, KBR

Though KBR has been present in the Indian arena, but the office has been established recently. May we have your comment?
While we do recognize our relatively late entry into the Indian market, M W Kellogg, the predecessor company of KBR has been present in India since 1970 and was well known for its ammonia technology. Though, discussions to have a permanent office in India were on for a couple of years, however, the process was accelerated in 2007.
The discussions materialized after KBR's separation from Halliburton and successful licensing of the entire clean fuel blocks comprising of six technology units in the Reliance Export Refinery at Jamnagar. Currently we are working on the business plan with an aim of long-term viability in the Indian market.

Can you please tell us about the operations and services of KBR for Indian market?
KBR is one of the largest technology based global engineering, construction and services companies of the world. We specialize in the areas of energy, hydrocarbon, government services, minerals, civil infrastructure, power and industrial markets. Our India operations will support our license and basic engineering offerings in the technology sector of our hydrocarbons business.  The strong legacy of technology with a strong differentiator gives us competitive advantage above our competitors.
Research and development has always been one of the key focus areas for the past eighty areas supported by state-of-the-art-technology  center. Our technologies are well positioned to extend our leadership in Ammonia, Refining,Olefins, Carbon-capture and Storage / CO2 sequestration, Coal gasification and Organic chemicals. We specialize in process development and technology licensing of energy-efficient and cost-effective process technologies and help our clients to enhance their technical and economic position in the oil and gas industry.
KBR offers ideas for growth and sustainability and discover untapped opportunities to its Indian clients. Irrespective of the challenge whether it is big or small, we involve ourselves at preliminary phase of planning and conceptualizing. This includes refining and petrochemicals integration, flexibility to shift towards more profitable product slate in line with the market trends, such as more diesel and/or propylene. We also offer solutions to switch over to cheaper feed-stocks to enhance value addition and reduce carbon footprint.
We have already set up KBR global engineering centre in Gurgaon to support our Indian clients through technical services, carrying out basic egineering design and operator training simulator designs for our technology offerings. We plan to increase the strength gradually to 100 shortly and over 200 in the long term.

How do you plan to promote the brand KBR across India?
We are very well known in India for our state-of-the-art Ammonia technology that is already being used by several Indian fertilizer manufacturing companies. This technology offers significant advantages to clients in terms of energy efficiency, operational reliability and lower capital as well operating costs. Together with these advantages there will be greater thrust in this area through our proprietary KBR Reformer Exchanger System (KRES) for low cost de-bottlenecking of existing ammonia plants to achieve 25 to 40 percent increase in capacities. This does not require any modifications in the primary reformer, which typically involve large modifications and hence un-affordable downtime. In view of need to process heavier and sour crude oils in the Indian refineries and comply with stringent product specifications, this technology can be employed with equal ease for de-bottlenecking of hydrogen plants to enhance capacities to meet with growing demands of this expensive utility.
Currently, refiners are facing the challenge to raise financial resources, which is expected to lead them to deploy comparatively in-expensive residue up-gradation solutions. KBR's proprietary ROSE technology meets with the required standards and one such study is already underway for HPCL's Mumbai Refinery.
In alliance with Exxon Mobil, KBR's clean fuel technologies are a well-established brand in the Indian market. These have been successfully and most economically utilized in the state-of-the-art Reliance Export Refinery to produce Euro-V products, including Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel and enhance value of the poor quality cycle oils from Fluid Catalyst Cracker (FCC) units of both refineries of Reliance located at Jamnagar.
With our physical presence in India, we expect to build on the successful deployment of our cutting edge technologies, in refining, petrochemicals and fertilizer as well as power sectors in India. Apart from KRES, we plan to introduce another in-house technology SUPERFLEX to convert low value orphan streams in the refineries to valuable products like propylene. This technology is expected to provide low cost options to refiners to integrate with petrochemicals. Similarly, TRIG, the coal gasification technology offered by KBR is most suitable for Indian coal because of its high ash content.

Can you tell us about current ongoing projects of KBR in India and projects in the pipeline?
KBR is executing several projects in India, which include revamp of two ammonia plants of M/S KRIBHCO at Hazira and revamp of existing propane de-asphalting unit of HPCL's Mumbai Refinery based on KBR's indigenous ROSE technology and internals. We are also pursuing Essar's grass-roots Ammonia plant in West Bengal and revamp of National Fertilizer's Ammonia facility at Nangal in Punjab.
On the other hand, a number of expansions of fertilizer plants, refinery upgrades through ROSE technology, Olefins recovery and manufacturing, Chemicals production and FCC revamps are in the pipeline. With commencement of KBR's India operations and significant investment activity in the fertilizer sector arising from availability of KG Basin gas, we are focused on enhancing substantially our market share to license ammonia technology and participate in upgrades of existing refineries in India to improve productivity and integrate with petrochemicals to enhance margins and hence profitability.

Which are the key focus areas for KBR in India and what are the customers focused strategies you plan to stick to?
We plan to focus on fertilizer and refining / petrochemicals as well as coal gasification in India. KBR believes in providing niche solutions focused on molecule management rather than just sell technology, so as to create maximum value for clients.
This strategy is backed by years of R&D efforts of KBR as well as our technology alliance partner ExxonMobil, the world's largest refiner and chemicals producer. These efforts are further supported by huge operations and maintenance experience of ExxonMobil's more than 40 refineries all over the world processing a variety of crude oils and other feed-stocks employing the technologies offered by KBR/ExxonMobil alliance.

How do you see the competition in Indian market?
Having been in the technology business for many years in this country, KBR is not new to the Indian market. Our physical presence in the country is going to enhance our visibility, which in turn will allow us to have much better contacts with current and potential clients, reduce response time which in turn, we hope will lead to enhance customer satisfaction. On the other hand, we hope to gain a better understanding of the market dynamics and opportunities in the Indian market so as to keep us aligned to the market needs.

What are the challenges that you foresee in the Indian market and how do you plan to meet them?
The Indian refining industry has seen large investments in the recent years  both in the public and private sectors for capacity increase, value addition and to meet more stringent product quality requirements for the domestic as well as export markets. As a result, the level of investments in the immediate future is expected to be somewhat lower. However, in the expanded refining/petrochemical sector, there will be significant low cost opportunities to improve the efficiency of operations of both the new and old assets through integration, utilization of additional available feed-stocks for value addition in the existing refineries / refining systems and to exploit the design margins in the new plants for capacity increase and optimization of operations. The India office will focus on carrying out studies in these areas to assist the clients to formulate their strategies for growth, particularly through nil or low capital investment, utilizing the hitherto relatively lesser-known features of technological options from the KBR/ExxonMobil alliance.

How do you see the growth of your company in the near future in India?
Currently, there is a huge gap in the fertilizer sector between indigenous supply and demand in India.  Based on our ongoing projects, those in the pipeline and growth plans of some of the existing as well as new players in the fertilizer sector to bridge the gap, we see ample scope of growth for KBR in India. Apart from refining and chemicals we see an emerging interest in the field of coal gasification for power, steel and fertilizer sectors. We see good opportunities for TRIG technology, which is best suited for high ash Indian coals.
Sheer logistics make having the office in India the right move for KBR. With 10.5 -hour time difference between Houston and India, KBR will be able to serve its clients better in the region by being in closer physical proximity to either troubleshoot problems or discuss new developments and opportunities. On economic front, KBR's India office will help the company become more cost competitive when bidding projects worldwide by having a well staffed and qualified engineering team already in place. KBR sees significant growth and opportunity in India and is committed to long-term growth of its India Operations

Though KBR has been present in the Indian arena, but the office has been established recently. May we have your comment?
While we do recognize our relatively late entry into the Indian market, M W Kellogg, the predecessor company of KBR has been present in India since 1970 and was well known for its ammonia technology. Though, discussions to have a permanent office in India were on for a couple of years, however, the process was accelerated in 2007.

The discussions materialized after KBR's separation from Halliburton and successful licensing of the entire clean fuel blocks comprising of six technology units in the Reliance Export Refinery at Jamnagar. Currently we are working on the business plan with an aim of long-term viability in the Indian market.

Can you please tell us about the operations and services of KBR for Indian market?
KBR is one of the largest technology based global engineering, construction and services companies of the world. We specialize in the areas of energy, hydrocarbon, government services, minerals, civil infrastructure, power and industrial markets. Our India operations will support our license and basic engineering offerings in the technology sector of our hydrocarbons business.  The strong legacy of technology with a strong differentiator gives us competitive advantage above our competitors.

Research and development has always been one of the key focus areas for the past eighty areas supported by state-of-the-art-technology  center. Our technologies are well positioned to extend our leadership in Ammonia, Refining,Olefins, Carbon-capture and Storage / CO2 sequestration, Coal gasification and Organic chemicals. We specialize in process development and technology licensing of energy-efficient and cost-effective process technologies and help our clients to enhance their technical and economic position in the oil and gas industry.

KBR offers ideas for growth and sustainability and discover untapped opportunities to its Indian clients. Irrespective of the challenge whether it is big or small, we involve ourselves at preliminary phase of planning and conceptualizing. This includes refining and petrochemicals integration, flexibility to shift towards more profitable product slate in line with the market trends, such as more diesel and/or propylene. We also offer solutions to switch over to cheaper feed-stocks to enhance value addition and reduce carbon footprint.
We have already set up KBR global engineering centre in Gurgaon to support our Indian clients through technical services, carrying out basic egineering design and operator training simulator designs for our technology offerings. We plan to increase the strength gradually to 100 shortly and over 200 in the long term.

How do you plan to promote the brand KBR across India?
We are very well known in India for our state-of-the-art Ammonia technology that is already being used by several Indian fertilizer manufacturing companies. This technology offers significant advantages to clients in terms of energy efficiency, operational reliability and lower capital as well operating costs. Together with these advantages there will be greater thrust in this area through our proprietary KBR Reformer Exchanger System (KRES) for low cost de-bottlenecking of existing ammonia plants to achieve 25 to 40 percent increase in capacities. This does not require any modifications in the primary reformer, which typically involve large modifications and hence un-affordable downtime. In view of need to process heavier and sour crude oils in the Indian refineries and comply with stringent product specifications, this technology can be employed with equal ease for de-bottlenecking of hydrogen plants to enhance capacities to meet with growing demands of this expensive utility.

Currently, refiners are facing the challenge to raise financial resources, which is expected to lead them to deploy comparatively in-expensive residue up-gradation solutions. KBR's proprietary ROSE technology meets with the required standards and one such study is already underway for HPCL's Mumbai Refinery.

In alliance with Exxon Mobil, KBR's clean fuel technologies are a well-established brand in the Indian market. These have been successfully and most economically utilized in the state-of-the-art Reliance Export Refinery to produce Euro-V products, including Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel and enhance value of the poor quality cycle oils from Fluid Catalyst Cracker (FCC) units of both refineries of Reliance located at Jamnagar.

With our physical presence in India, we expect to build on the successful deployment of our cutting edge technologies, in refining, petrochemicals and fertilizer as well as power sectors in India. Apart from KRES, we plan to introduce another in-house technology SUPERFLEX to convert low value orphan streams in the refineries to valuable products like propylene. This technology is expected to provide low cost options to refiners to integrate with petrochemicals. Similarly, TRIG, the coal gasification technology offered by KBR is most suitable for Indian coal because of its high ash content.

Can you tell us about current ongoing projects of KBR in India and projects in the pipeline?
KBR is executing several projects in India, which include revamp of two ammonia plants of M/S KRIBHCO at Hazira and revamp of existing propane de-asphalting unit of HPCL's Mumbai Refinery based on KBR's indigenous ROSE technology and internals. We are also pursuing Essar's grass-roots Ammonia plant in West Bengal and revamp of National Fertilizer's Ammonia facility at Nangal in Punjab.

On the other hand, a number of expansions of fertilizer plants, refinery upgrades through ROSE technology, Olefins recovery and manufacturing, Chemicals production and FCC revamps are in the pipeline. With commencement of KBR's India operations and significant investment activity in the fertilizer sector arising from availability of KG Basin gas, we are focused on enhancing substantially our market share to license ammonia technology and participate in upgrades of existing refineries in India to improve productivity and integrate with petrochemicals to enhance margins and hence profitability.

Which are the key focus areas for KBR in India and what are the customers focused strategies you plan to stick to?
We plan to focus on fertilizer and refining / petrochemicals as well as coal gasification in India. KBR believes in providing niche solutions focused on molecule management rather than just sell technology, so as to create maximum value for clients.

This strategy is backed by years of R&D efforts of KBR as well as our technology alliance partner ExxonMobil, the world's largest refiner and chemicals producer. These efforts are further supported by huge operations and maintenance experience of ExxonMobil's more than 40 refineries all over the world processing a variety of crude oils and other feed-stocks employing the technologies offered by KBR/ExxonMobil alliance.

How do you see the competition in Indian market?
Having been in the technology business for many years in this country, KBR is not new to the Indian market. Our physical presence in the country is going to enhance our visibility, which in turn will allow us to have much better contacts with current and potential clients, reduce response time which in turn, we hope will lead to enhance customer satisfaction. On the other hand, we hope to gain a better understanding of the market dynamics and opportunities in the Indian market so as to keep us aligned to the market needs.

What are the challenges that you foresee in the Indian market and how do you plan to meet them?
The Indian refining industry has seen large investments in the recent years  both in the public and private sectors for capacity increase, value addition and to meet more stringent product quality requirements for the domestic as well as export markets. As a result, the level of investments in the immediate future is expected to be somewhat lower. However, in the expanded refining/petrochemical sector, there will be significant low cost opportunities to improve the efficiency of operations of both the new and old assets through integration, utilization of additional available feed-stocks for value addition in the existing refineries / refining systems and to exploit the design margins in the new plants for capacity increase and optimization of operations. The India office will focus on carrying out studies in these areas to assist the clients to formulate their strategies for growth, particularly through nil or low capital investment, utilizing the hitherto relatively lesser-known features of technological options from the KBR/ExxonMobil alliance.

How do you see the growth of your company in the near future in India?
Currently, there is a huge gap in the fertilizer sector between indigenous supply and demand in India.  Based on our ongoing projects, those in the pipeline and growth plans of some of the existing as well as new players in the fertilizer sector to bridge the gap, we see ample scope of growth for KBR in India. Apart from refining and chemicals we see an emerging interest in the field of coal gasification for power, steel and fertilizer sectors. We see good opportunities for TRIG technology, which is best suited for high ash Indian coals.

Sheer logistics make having the office in India the right move for KBR. With 10.5 -hour time difference between Houston and India, KBR will be able to serve its clients better in the region by being in closer physical proximity to either troubleshoot problems or discuss new developments and opportunities. On economic front, KBR's India office will help the company become more cost competitive when bidding projects worldwide by having a well staffed and qualified engineering team already in place. KBR sees significant growth and opportunity in India and is committed to long-term growth of its India Operations