ADIPEC 2025: Kent EVP on offshore Middle East trends in engineering, digital twins and sustainability

Eddie: The Gulf is running at full tilt. The first challenge is meeting capacity, by ensuring that we have the right people, in the right place, at the right time. The capacity is also reliant on ensuring that we still meet national objectives for local content and supplier development. The demand signal across the region is intense, which constrains specialist engineering resources and creates competition for experienced construction and commissioning talent. Kent has leaned into this with a blended model: we attract and grow capability locally through graduate and academy programs, while flexing global delivery from centers of excellence to keep quality high and costs predictable.

The second challenge is the supply chain. Long-lead equipment and congested vendor workshops can push critical items onto the path of delay. Our response is to get in early by locking production slots and expediting intelligently through trusted vendor relationships. This way, procurement becomes a schedule enabler, not a bottleneck. That discipline is backed by integrated project controls and vendor management teams who live and breathe expediting, inspection and logistics, minimizing surprises between factory floor and offshore hook-up.

The third is technical: aging, live assets that must keep producing while we upgrade them. Late-life integrity issues, obsolescence and SIMOPS make “brownfield on a live plant” one of the toughest assignments in engineering. Kent’s answer is a brownfield playbook built on right-sized engineering, modularization to reduce offshore hours, and a data-centric toolset that takes uncertainty off the table from plant capacity modeling and weight control to emissions and risk insights. This allows us to execute safely, faster and with fewer offshore interfaces.

Underpinning all of this is continuity from concept to execution. By connecting consultancy, front-end engineering design (FEED) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) teams as one, we retain front-end insight through to commissioning, cutting rework and preserving the original value case. It’s a simple idea with outsized impact in the Gulf’s pace-driven environment: fewer handovers, clearer accountability and delivery that is scalable, predictable and safe.

Eddie: Innovation is the backbone of cost-efficient offshore operations, and in recent years, it has fundamentally reshaped how operators approach design and asset management.

At Kent, we’re leveraging advances such as remote monitoring and control, which allow traditionally 'attended' installations to be converted into normally unattended facilities, reducing both opex and safety risk. We’re also helping clients unlock value through re-use of existing infrastructure. For example, our operation is enabling subsea tiebacks to existing platforms through detailed capacity modeling and life-extension engineering.

Offshore electrification is another game changer, through cutting emissions and reducing maintenance associated with conventional power generation offshore. We’re also rethinking redundancy philosophy by improving the reliability of key equipment, enabling smaller and lighter topsides that are faster to fabricate and install.

Offshore: How does Kent collaborate with national oil companies (NOCs) and international partners to deliver complex offshore projects on time and within budget?

Eddie: Our philosophy is simple: success begins early. Kent engages with clients at the concept and pre-FEED stages, ensuring the project is optimized before major investments are made.

By developing and evaluating all potential options through a structured decision-quality framework, we give our clients confidence that the selected concept is the best one, reducing costly redesign later in the process. We benchmark our designs against industry best practice for cost and schedule, and we introduce innovative contracting models such as combined design phases or alliance structures to encourage collaboration and flexibility.

We also integrate procurement support for long-lead items from the outset, ensuring early production slot allocation and avoiding supply chain bottlenecks. And crucially, we involve commissioning and operations teams early, so the design inherently supports efficient construction, startup and long-term operation.

This front-end approach sets the foundation for predictable delivery and fosters the trust and transparency that our NOC and IOC partners have come to expect from Kent.

Offshore: How does Kent tailor its engineering and project management strategies to meet the unique environmental and regulatory conditions of the Middle East offshore market?

Eddie: Across the Middle East, and particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, construction permits hinge on a rigorous environmental impact assessment. Kent always ensures these are completed and approved during the FEED phase.

Our engineers integrate all mitigation measures directly into the design, from rerouting pipelines around sensitive habitats to modeling outfall dispersion in the Gulf to meet ambient temperature standards. Every specification reflects our commitment to protecting biodiversity and ensuring compliance with local regulations.

Offshore: What role does digitalization, such as digital twins, advanced simulation or predictive analytics, play in optimizing offshore project delivery and asset performance?

Eddie: Digitalization is transforming how we design, deliver and operate offshore assets. At Kent, through our EnnovaAI platform, we’re aiming to push this transformation beyond visualization, but rather into prediction, automation and decision intelligence.

Our digital twin ecosystem enables real-time monitoring of offshore facilities, allowing engineers to visualize asset health and performance from anywhere in the world. AI-driven predictive analytics anticipate equipment failures and optimize maintenance schedules, reducing downtime and extending asset life.

We’re also bridging this capability into remote and autonomous operations, where assets can be managed with minimal offshore presence, enhancing safety and reducing carbon intensity. With AI-powered geofencing and intelligent situational awareness, EnnovaAI supports safe operations, optimizes logistics and provides autonomous decision support during critical tasks.

Digitalization, empowered by AI, IIoT and EnnovaAI, is enabling the shift from reactive to autonomous operations, redefining how offshore assets are designed, delivered and managed across their lifecycle.

Eddie: Decarbonization is no longer an afterthought in the industry; it’s embedded in every aspect of our work. Whether we’re designing new facilities or upgrading legacy assets, we integrate sustainability, emissions reduction and energy efficiency from the start.

For example, we’re working with ADNOC on a flare gas reduction roadmap and supporting operators across the region in developing electrification and renewable integration strategies for offshore facilities. Using our Carbon Intensity Reduction Tool, we can model emissions through the full lifecycle, helping clients make informed design decisions that align with net-zero ambitions.

In older assets, which are often the hardest to decarbonize, we apply creative engineering and retrofitting strategies to drive efficiency gains, helping to extend asset life while significantly reducing environmental impact.

Our approach combines engineering precision with climate responsibility, ensuring that sustainability is measurable and achievable.

Offshore: What are the key factors driving demand for modular and prefabricated offshore solutions in the Middle East, and how is Kent responding to this trend?

Eddie: The growing demand for modular and prefabricated solutions is driven by a central goal of reducing time spent offshore. By maximizing onshore fabrication, operators can improve safety, accelerate delivery and achieve greater cost control.

Kent is responding with a modular-first philosophy, applying lessons from decades of global experience. By designing and fabricating modules onshore, we minimize offshore exposure, improve quality, and deliver projects faster and more predictably.

This approach aligns perfectly with the region’s ambition to build cleaner, safer and more sustainable offshore assets, without compromising performance.

Offshore: Looking ahead, what emerging technologies or engineering approaches do you see reshaping offshore oil and gas development in the Middle East over the next decade?

Eddie: The offshore landscape is evolving rapidly. Over the next decade, we’ll see a shift toward AI-driven engineering, lightweight materials, hybrid power systems and more collaborative contracting models such as EPMC.

Technology will undoubtly play a crucial role, from autonomous inspection drones and AI-powered planning tools to next-generation materials that are both lighter and more carbon efficient. But just as importantly, success will depend on partnerships and adaptability.

Kent will be exhibiting in Hall 8 at booth 8230 at the ADIPEC conference and exhbition Nov. 3-6 in Abu Dhabi. View the company's presentation schedule here. 

Offshore is a media partner of ADIPEC.