Skyscrapers from the sands: Dubai has been transformed
The Middle East possesses vast natural resources and with oil prices high, the region’s governments have the funds to support massive infrastructure projects and industrial diversification. The region also has a large population which is one of the wealthiest and youngest in the world. Hundreds of large projects and engineers are needed, not just in the construction and oil and gas sectors, but increasingly in areas such as transport, manufacturing and renewables. A heady combination of scale, ambition, opportunity and financial reward is attracting thousands of engineers to work in the region, and a growing number of local students into the profession.
At the same time, the region’s culture and society differ from those of the West. Outside the relative stability of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – lie some of the riskiest and most war-torn places in the world, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Egypt.
This is a diverse and fast-changing region, that on closer inspection denies the generalisations engendered by news reports. And engineers, who are fundamental to the rebuilding and growth of the region, are uniquely placed to relate the experience of everyday life.
Dubai, in the UAE, is emblematic of the transformation in GCC countries. The self-styled ‘centre of the Islamic economy and gateway to the Middle East’ has seen increasingly outrageous skyscrapers emerge from the sands over the past two decades. Cathy Christer, a building services design engineer for consultancy Atkins, first arrived in the emirate in 1992 to work on the grandaddy of ambitious Arab buildings – the Burj Al Arab.
“When I came out here, it was just after I had graduated and there was a recession on at home. A lot of my colleagues had gone to work in other sectors, but I was lucky enough to get a role on that project,” she says. After six years she went back to London, but returned to Dubai in 2008 to help set up the building services design team, which is now a 40-strong group of engineers. During the intervening years the city had changed “beyond recognition”, she says. “When I left last time I thought it would be finished in a few years, but they’ve just kept going. Although this time around it’s a bit more sustained and measured – we’re building towards the 2020 Expo.”
Quality of life has also improved, she adds. “In 1992 it was considered a ‘hardship post’, but it’s easier to get hold of things now. The metro helps in getting around, internet streaming means you can get what television and films you like, and there is a great outdoors lifestyle.”
One of the biggest draws with Dubai and other parts of the Middle East is the offer of a tax-free salary. Salaries are good, says Christer, but property rentals are expensive and heavily regulated. Many landlords also want six months’ rent for a property in advance.
Being a female engineer in the Middle East, she says, has never been a problem for her. Engineering is a prestige profession there. But the market in Dubai is tough. Competition comes from an eclectic mix of firms and people from all over the world. However, the variety of people’s backgrounds also makes Dubai an attractive place to work, as do the large projects, she adds. “You will see a project end-to-end here. The scale is so large and the pace so fast. You are more likely to be entrusted with responsibility as a younger engineer, because of the number and range of projects.”
At Atkins, a steady stream of people from other locations are ready to work in the Dubai office, says Christer. In general, the number of engineers from outside the region working in the Middle East is rising, despite government initiatives to provide more indigenous engineers. These have taken the form of expatriate ‘amnesties’ for people with expired visas, and scholarships for science and technology students in the region’s universities and colleges, with guaranteed jobs at the end of their study.
One engineer who studied in the region and now works there is Muhammad Ahsan Arshad. He studied mechanical engineering at the Petroleum Institute at Abu Dhabi and now works for Fertil, a downstream business of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). The production plant where he is based lies about 200km from Abu Dhabi and employs around 1,500 people, of whom between 100 and 150 are fully qualified engineers.
His plant produces around 3,500 tonnes a day of anhydrous urea for fertiliser – after originally having been commissioned in 1980 with a capacity of just 3.5 tonnes a day. Arshad works in the inspection and engineering department, and typically his day mainly comprises carrying out planned inspections of equipment and plant.
The plant operates against the UAE’s constantly evolving political and social backdrop. The leadership of the country wants to diversify its industry, encourage better education and skills among its young population, and promote energy efficiency and renewables, to make better use of its hydrocarbon resources. “There is competition for gas usage,” says Arshad. “Our process is energy-intensive and demands a lot of natural gas. The UAE leadership has ambitious plans for fertilisers and petrochemicals. It’s all a change for the better. It’s a good place to be a mechanical engineer at the moment.”
The Fertil plant operates to all the appropriate international standards, but it has “some way to go” before it could be benchmarked as ‘excellent’, he says. “We don’t use software as much as some countries – it’s still a bit of a manual process.”
Nevertheless, engineers at the plant are always pushing for more innovation, which is what interests him most in his job, he says. “I like that constant drive to improve.” The other aspect that he prizes is the scope for international travel and the chance to interact with people from different countries and cultures.
Arshad believes engineers are highly regarded in the Middle East, perhaps in the top five most respected professions, behind doctors, lawyers and businessmen. There is no legal protection of the title ‘engineer’ in most of the Middle East, and Arshad is applying for chartered status at the IMechE. Pay and conditions for engineers vary as they do elsewhere, depending on which company you work for, he adds. The standard of engineering education can also vary, and respect is given to your status as an engineer according to both where you did your degree and your nationality. Aside from the oil and gas and process industry, there are most opportunities in the aviation sector, he says, which is rapidly expanding.
The more strife-torn parts of the region also need engineers, and working in such countries can be both rewarding and challenging.
Since March 2012, Dr Mark McHutchon, senior mechanical engineer at Pell Frischmann, has been visiting Iraq, helping to upgrade a substantial part of the country’s water treatment infrastructure. He has led the mechanical and electrical parts of the design for three water treatment plants and several pumping stations in the Haditha, Beji and Salamiya regions of Iraq. McHutchon’s work has involved visiting existing plants and attending meetings in Baghdad.
The people he has met day-to-day in Iraq, such as the plant operators, have been friendly and keen to help, he says. Generally, the standard of knowledge of Iraqi engineers was good, with some “very sharp” engineers. However, when understanding broke down during conversations it was sometimes not clear whether this was because of a lack of technical knowledge or a communication barrier, he adds.
The Middle East is increasingly attracting people from outside the region
The $500 million water upgrade project is funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The project, which employed about 120 engineers at its peak, will improve the infrastructure so millions of people can drink the water instead of just using it for irrigation. The scheme will also double capacity in the region to around 500 megalitres per day. For comparison, that is enough water to supply all of Devon and Cornwall every day. “The project will make a significant difference to people’s lives,” says McHutchon.
His longest Iraq trip so far has been an initial five-week visit at the beginning of the project to catalogue the state of the existing plants and pumping stations, which he describes as “pretty bad”. Apparently little to no maintenance had been performed in the last 20 years, although it would have been unlikely that spare parts would have been available under Saddam Hussein’s regime. “There’s no earthing on any of the electrics, and we saw bullet holes on some bits and pieces. They hadn’t been doing chemical dosing for a long time. In one particular area the quality was shocking.
“The roads are decent and there is fuel in most places. But power is a real challenge. Everywhere we went, there were chronic power outages every day.”
Some improvements had been made by the International Committee of the Red Cross, mostly new pumps, and others by the US in 2007 and 2008, after the war. But most of the plants and pumping stations are degraded to such an extent that almost everything needs replacing. A key decision for the team then was which standard of technology to install – the most modern plant and equipment possible, or relay architecture, as was the standard 30 years ago in the UK.
“They want it like we have it in the UK now. But the power network isn’t great, and supply of spare parts could be difficult in the future. So there has to be the ability to turn the automation off and do things manually,” says McHutchon.
A further consideration is that the contractor needs to be able to build the plants, run them for a year, train operators and be responsible for the second year of operation. So the team decided to go for the middle ground. The design therefore includes multiple programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to control the different areas, a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to tie everything together, and proper process controls for chemical dosing.
Other factors that complicate the design process include a proliferation of illegal connections, poor information about the piping infrastructure, and exceptionally dry heat. Getting approval for the project has also proved tough. The team works in the Iraqi government’s ministry of municipalities and public works department. However, one legacy of Saddam is that some aspects of government can be highly bureaucratic. “Local engineers have to sign off for works in their neighbourhood, which often involves actual rubber stamping of hundreds of drawings by several individuals,” says McHutchon.
Most suppliers, such as Siemens, Schneider Electric and KSV, are not put off by the Iraq aspect of the project, he says. Indeed, over the past few years the country has felt ‘open for business’ whenever he has visited. Baghdad is full of people “getting on with life”, he says.
“Everywhere you look, you see T-walls – the big bits of reinforced concrete – and the wire-mesh-and-sack Hesco walls, which people have ripped apart and used to patch up roofing and fences. There are American Humvees everywhere – a lot are static because they haven’t been maintained.”
Unsurprisingly, a visitor to Iraq can also expect to see a lot of guns. “There are checkpoints everywhere, with guards wearing camouflage and carrying AK47s and grenades. But all they seem to do is slow the traffic down. Sometimes you feel as if you are in a news report or a film.”
However, the insurgency “felt like an irritation, not a hindrance to getting things done”, he says. “You’re a bit more on edge than at home. You don’t linger in the lobby, you want to take the third or fourth floor of hotels. Too low, you are at risk of a bombing; too high, and the ladders don’t reach. Our guy out there talks about making coffee and checking emails on Monday morning while hearing bombs going off.”
McHutchon’s last visit to Baghdad was in April this year, when things had relaxed to the point where visiting engineers no longer had to constantly be escorted by security. However, since the fall of Mosul in June, all travel to Iraq has been postponed.
All the designs for the treatment plants and pumping stations are complete, and the company is waiting for government approvals and payment. The tendering to supply and build the plants was supposed to start this autumn, but is now delayed because of the instability. Once construction does start, Pell Frischmann will supervise the sites, which could mean more time in Iraq for McHutchon.
Despite the edgy moments, bureaucracy and delays, he recommends the Iraq experience. “Aside from the situation right now, I would say: ‘don’t be too scared – go’. It has been a fascinating, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Engineers get to change the world, and this is real quality-of-life stuff. Of the engineers I’ve worked with
in the Mosul area, three are Christians and two are trying to get out of the country. The country is losing expertise.”
Experiences can vary dramatically across this diverse region, where countries may be neighbours but still be worlds apart in terms of infrastructure and industry. Whatever the role, though, it’s clear that engineers are fundamental to the Middle East’s growth and success, that they are valued by the culture and leadership, and that life in the region is different but not too alien.