MEG Worley: Covering the globe

While dedication, perseverance, technical expertise and desire are important ingredients of success, your ability to listen and understand your clients' needs, and your capacity to meet those needs and expectations ultimately differentiates you from your competitors. According to Mr Radko Ohnutek a 30 year plus veteran of the global oil and gas industry and Vice President & Manager, International Operations for MEG Worley Limited, 'operating companies are under constant pressure from their stakeholders to continually improve performance, and enhance share-holder value.' As a result, engineering consultant firms such as MEG Worley are repeatedly challenged to demonstrate their "value added" worth to the client, and the project in question. "Providing status quo engineering consultancy services in today's ever changing environment is simply not enough," says Mr Ohnutek. "To be successful, companies such as ours need to welcome and embrace change as it often brings new opportunities and challenges." Originally established in 1965 (as Macdonald Engineering Group Ltd.), MEG Worley Limited was formed to address a growing need for consultancy services to the developing oil and gas industry in Canada. Initially specializing in basic oil and gas wellsites with commensurate flowlines, manifolds, separation, and treating facilities, MEG Worley matured into providing complete gas processing, heavy oils recovery, fractionation, sour gas handling, sulphur recovery and handling, multi-phase pipeline systems, and specialized production facilities for the oil and gas industry. As projects grew in complexity and scale, MEG Worley developed and expanded a range of flexible project management services that could deliver integrated planning, estimating, cost control, project management, procurement, construction management and consultancy services. In 1986, MEG Worley entered the inter-national arena, successfully executing a number of engineering design and consultancy services contracts in China. "Since then, the company has never looked back," says Mr Ohnutek. "Today, MEG Worley has a demonstrated track record of success in Syria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Libya, Sudan, Nigeria, Oman, Slovakia, Gabon, Romania, Albania, and most recently Yemen." Once again, recognizing the need to continually expand its services and expertise to meet the changing needs of its clients, in August 2003, Macdonald Engineering Group Limited sold a 50 percent interest in the company to Worley Group Limited of Australia, thus effectively forming MEG Worley Limited. "Our clients were seeking engineering solutions to their integrated onshore/offshore project ventures. We were listening and responded accordingly," says Mr Ohnutek. "Our alignment with Worley provided our clients with a 'one stop' shop solution to their onshore & offshore oil & gas facilities engineering requirements. Additionally, our global coverage is such that we are able to meet the specifics needs and requirements of our clients on virtually every continent." Ohnutek is proud of the company's accomplishments and attributes much of the success to MEG Worley's 250 employees. “In the engineering consultancy business, your people are your most important re-source. Our people possess the experience, expertise, innovation and knowledge that our clients value. Bringing these talented re-sources together in a Team environment allow us to continually challenge the traditions of our industry, and ensures our clients receive 'Best Practices' engineering and economic solutions at all times." Although MEG Worley's home office staff may appear small in a global context, Mr Ohnutek clearly points out that MEG Worley, through its partnership with Worley, has the capacity to draw from a worldwide resource pool of over 5,000 engineering and technical specialists. Mr Ohnutek believes that another key reason for MEG Worley’s success lies in the company's historical ability to evenly balance its revenue streams between domestic and international project assignments. "The oil & gas industry has always been a cyclical environment," Mr Ohnutek says. "We re-cognized some time ago that striking a solid balance between our international and domestic activities was critical to the long term success of our organization." Mr Ohnutek is especially proud of the fact that, "many of our current relationships with our oil & gas clients were forged over a decade ago. We learnt a long time ago that our success and that of our clients were uniquely linked, and that to be successful, it was imperative to work closely with our clients to create a mutually beneficial relationship built on the principles of honesty, trust and integrity." It is these very principles that continue to drive the company. While MEG Worley's main business activities are still primarily concentrated on the oil & gas related sectors, the company is expanding and capable of providing the same level of high quality services to other energy and industrial sectors such as: minerals, metals & chemicals; industrial & infrastructure; and power generation. So what does the future have in store for MEG Worley? "No matter what it is, we will be ready,"says Mr Ohnutek. Based on past history, it is a good bet that they will be, indeed.