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| Employee Excellence Award |
November, 2008 |
 The Employee Excellence Award for the quarter July – September 2008 was presented at a gala ceremony at the Oasis Investment Co. LLC. Mr. Kattani Shankaran Kutty was the winner of the award. The award was presented by Mr. Mohan Valrani; Sr. Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Al Shirawi Group.
“The award really shocked me,” said Mr. Kutty, “I couldn’t believe it when I heard I had been selected. I’m just doing my job. But it’s really nice to be recognized; I am very grateful to all especially the management. It’s still shocking, though, because I totally didn’t expect it.”
Mr. Kutty, as he is popularly known, has been with the Organization for the last 30 years. He served in various capacities at Al Shirawi Operations in the Iraq and Saudi Arabia before he was transferred to the Corporate Office in 1990. Since then he has working with the Internal Audit Department. Mr. Kutty’s sense of dedication and commitment to his task makes him a prefect role model for all the others in his department.
The Award has been initiated to recognize the efforts of employees who have made a significant impact on the Organization through outstanding dedication, competence and exceptional performance. |
| T-3 Energy Services, Inc. enters into Middle East joint venture agreement with ASWAN |
September, 2008 |
 T-3 Energy Services, Inc. (“T-3 Energy”) (NASDAQ:TTES – News) announced today that it has entered into a joint venture arrangement to be effective September 1, 2008, or such earlier date as agreed to by the parties, with Aswan International Engineering Company LLC, (“Aswan”). Aswan, who is a member of the Al Shirawi Group of Companies (“Al Shirawi”), is located in Dubai and provides manufacturing, repair and remanufacturing of oilfield products for customers operating in the Middle East. The joint venture, which will be named T-3 Energy Services Aswan Middle East LLC (“the Company”), will be operated and controlled by both parties in equal percentages. Under the terms of the agreement, T-3 Energy will provide the Company with a license and technical assistance to repair, manufacture, remanufacture and service equipment for customers in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Iraq. Aswan will provide the Company with manufacturing space pursuant to a sublease agreement along with its competence and experience in Dubai with respect to agency support and operations support. On the effective date of the joint venture arrangement, T-3 Energy and Aswan will enter into a contribution agreement whereby T-3 Energy and Aswan will each contribute certain equipment and operations capital to the Company.
Gus D. Halas, T-3 Energy’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, “We are excited to work with Aswan and Al Shirawi as their extensive experience and contacts in the oil and gas industry should help us expand our pressure control group into the Middle East. This joint venture arrangement is another milestone in T-3’s strategy of international growth. It should allow us to provide companies operating in the Middle East with a readily available source of T-3’s original equipment products along with a rapid response to their aftermarket service needs. Our physical presence and product availability in the Middle East provides further commitment to better meet our customers’ needs.”
Kabir Valrani, Chief Executive Officer of Aswan International Engineering Company LLC commented, “We are excited about the new joint venture in Dubai, UAE with T-3 Energy Services. T-3 has vast experience and engineering know how in the pressure control equipment. We plan to have state of the art capital equipment and infrastructure for the remanufacture, service and recertification of pressure control equipment and will be playing a key role to cater to the growing needs of the Middle East oilfield customers.”
T-3 Energy Services, Inc. provides a broad range of oilfield products and services primarily to customers in the drilling and completion of new oil and gas wells, the workover of existing wells and the production and transportation of oil and gas.
Certain comments contained in this news release concerning the anticipated financial results of T-3 Energy constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Whenever possible, T-3 Energy has identified these "forward-looking" statements by words such as "believe", "encouraged", "expect", "expected" and similar phrases. The forward-looking statements are based upon management's expectations and beliefs and, although these statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, actual results might differ materially from expected results due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to, overall demand for and pricing of T-3 Energy's products, changes in the level of oil and natural gas exploration and development, and variations in global business and economic conditions. T-3 Energy assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties that could impact T-3 Energy's results, review the T-3 Energy Services, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 and other filings of the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
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| Al Shirawi group takes transformation by the horns |
June, 2008 |
 In what could be
termed as the
largest consolidation
effort in the history
of the company,
the diversified Al
Shirawi Group has
initiated an enterprise
wide application
and infrastructure
centralisation exercise
that is aimed at leaving
legacy behind.
With over 30 diversified companies structured across eight business units under its umbrella, the Al
Shirawi Group found itself at cross roads. “Growth
was excellent. The group had diversified interests
from manufacturing, trading, plastic, printing,
global shipping to logistics and transportation, but
each company was operating within its own island of
systems. The infrastructure was also sagging. If we had
to keep up with the pace of growth, change had to be
initiated,” says MN Chaturvedi, Director of IT at Al
Shirawi Group of Companies.
“Having run the business on Informix based systems
for over 10 years we found that we needed applications
and systems that could enable management to get a
group picture. The first step therefore was to head
towards a major ERP initiative,” Chaturvedi adds.
In line with this plan, the company took the decision
to implement the Oracle e-Business Suite based on
HP servers to integrate the different lines of activity
including manufacturing, projects and accounts at the
group level.
“We decided to invest in one central system that
could integrate various aspects and then integrate best of
breed, vertical, domain specific applications that some of
our business interests would need,” he adds.
With the application centralisation underway, the next
step was to ensure that an infrastructure that could cope
with growth was put in place. Read the complete story [PDF] |
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| The Al Shirawi Group in the UAE is in an enviable position |
June, 2008 |
| The board had a feeling that our systems were not able to deliver on the business’s requirements. The Al Shirawi Group in the UAE is in an enviable position – it found itself needing a new ERP system, to cope with the dramatic growth its divisions were seeing.
In the Middle East’s booming economies, more and more companies are being forced to scale their systems to meet new business requirements, and Al Shirawi Group’s eight companies – each with several business units – is a good exemplar.
“There is a very wide variety of business types across the companies, a very broad spectrum of industries,” says M Chaturvedi, director of IT for Al Shirawi. “These industries consist of manufacturing, trading, projects, air conditioning.”
He says the impetus for the ERP project came from the group’s board of directors. They felt the group needed a more cohesive approach to data and information from its companies – the current systems deliver company data in a rather different format to that desired by the directors.
“The board of directors wanted to consolidate everything on one system,” explains Chaturvedi. “They had a feeling that the business was growing, and our systems were not able to deliver on the business’s increasing requirements. Read the complete story |
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| Hotels in old town waterproofing |
March, 2008 |
 They say it never rains but it pours. That's certainly true of Dubai, and Emaar called on the skills of the team at Al Shirawi Contracting to safeguard the
flagship Qamardeen and Al
Manzil Hotels. The waterproofing
works for these
properties presented a particular
challenge, not from
above, but from below,
thanks to the proximity of
the Business Bay extension
of Dubai Creek and the
extensive construction going
on in the Burj Dubai/
Downtown development
area.
One of the Old
Tow n’s features is the
absence of traffic – all cars
are parked underground,
and this is equally true of
the parking provision at the
hotels. In fact, some
25,000m2 of space for 500
cars is found at Qamardeen
and a similar provision at Al
Manzil, demanding meticulous
waterproofing and
extremely high quality work.
The whole area was
sealed with Bitumat
Premierflex 4000 using an
injection hose system to
eliminate the possibility of
any leakage at any stage.
Above ground, a
matching 25,000 square
metres of roof was sealed
using Bitumat Polyflex, and
heavy rains experienced during
the early stages of the
works proved the quality of
the installation! Guests staying
at Qamardeen and Al
Manzil are ensured of a
comfortable, relaxing, and
above all, dry stay during
their visit |
| EFG Hermes Bank on Al Shirawi quality |
February, 2008 |
| When prestige financial
house EFG Hermes decided
to set up an operation in
Dubai, they chose DIFC for
their office. The only problem
was, no suitable office
was available for their
move in two months time.
Solution? Pick up the
phone to Al Shirawi.
Working very closely
with Project Managers M A
C E, Ani Chacko and the
team from Al Shirawi
Contracting Co LLC undertook
the whole thing as a
complete turn-key project,
supplying and installing all
flooring, partitions, ceilings,
woodwork and glass paneling.
A particular feature of
this project is the very
sleek profiles of the work –
take a look at the almost
invisible joints between the
glass panels, achieved by
specifying and unusually
slim profile for the edges.
Tricky, but the result was
definitely worth it!
The team also had to
work very closely with the
MEP agency to ensure that
services and finishes were
installed in a coordinated
fashion, and the whole job
was completed and handed
over successfully within the
original 60 days window.
Such was the success
of the job and the quality of the finishes
achieved that the team
went on to win the contract
for Kuwait-based real estate
investors Grand
International’s prestigious
new head office in EMAAR
Business Park, opposite
DIC. |
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| Eye glass project sees great results |
February, 2008 |
 What do you notice when you look at the buses carrying construction workers around the streets of Dubai? Jamie Phares noticed that virtually none of the workers wore eye glasses. Jamie raised the subject with her friend, Navin Valrani, and asked him why this was. Do construction workers have unusually good eyesight? Or was there some other reason? This conversation laid the foundations for the Eye Glass Project, which was to become a major charitable initiative driven by Al Shirawi Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. Jamie Phares happens to work with Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s leading sight specialists, supplying vision correction technology to opticians throughout the region. Navin Valrani was impressed with her concerns, and recognized immediately that proper eye care and correct vision are vital for the welfare of all company employees. The problem was that many workers did not have access to qualified and professional eye care. So, a company-wide initiative was implemented to ensure that  all workers had access to proper sight testing and vision correction. The company teamed up with Al Jaber Optical to offer all workers free eye testing, and also arranged with Johnson & Johnson to provide spectacles to those who needed them at a heavily
subsidized rate. It began with a Notice posted in April 2006 inviting workers to come for a free eye test. That first notice brought 69 enquiries, and resulted in 69 pairs of spectacles being issued! Subsequent rounds have seen a further 200 applicants, of which 173 now have glasses and better vision. The program was an immediate success, and so far more than 250 workers have been enabled to see properly, many of them for the first time! The program is ongoing, and when every member of current workforce has taken up the opportunity, it will be offered to all new recruits as well. Employee welfare is a one of the cornerstones of all Al Shirawi group businesses, and the company’s initiative was prominently featured in 7Days. |
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