Projects on Budget and Time

Q: How has the Energy Reform changed the Mexican market for Emerson?

A: The Energy Reform has been very rewarding as both national and international players are coming into the market, diversifying it and opening it for new opportunities as well as investing more capital. Companies are making big investments and have an expectation for their returns, but first and foremost regarding quality, safety and reliability. For safety, Emerson offers automated features for fire and gas and emergency shut down. On reliability, our portfolio for key equipment monitoring is top in the market and on measurement the custody portfolio is one of the strongest in the market with Coriolis flow meters and pressure, temperature and level measurements.

Emerson can see great plans for new infrastructure being built and for those projects we present potential customers with our project certainty concept. Project certainty is Emerson’s approach to ensure that projects are done on budget and on time. Looking at the industry in general, Emerson has found that 62 percent of the projects are not carried out on time (this is, taking more than six months extra to execute) nor on budget (needing a 25 percent increase on budget). These numbers are terrifying for a company that is embarking on the construction of a 5,000km pipeline. Projects always have changes, there is no way to avoid that, but to ensure project certainty, Emerson's approach is to partner up from the early design with all the stakeholders to ensure that changes that will have to happen can be allocated without affecting budget nor time.

Q: What range of Emerson’s solutions is most applicable to the Mexican market?

A: Emerson’s most important value is safety. Our life saving behavior philosophy is fully adopted by our employees and is also in perfect alignment with our customers’ safety standards. Emerson holds a strong portfolio relating to safety automation features for fire and gas as well as emergency shut down. We have been very successful with that portfolio in Mexico and foresee that as industry players take a more conscious approach to safety, from producers to consumers and insurers, this portfolio will grow more in Mexico. Mexico still has some catching up to do in the automated safety market compared to other more developed and mature markets such as US and Europe, but we see trends going in the right direction.

Q: How will PEMEX’s restructuring impact its use of automated solutions?

A: PEMEX will continue to be a primary player in the market, there is no doubt about it. PEMEX has a strong plan to restructure its organization, including alliances and joint ventures. This will mean PEMEX will start competing against world leaders in automation and safety, therefore asking for even more of these automation technologies. PEMEX is traditionally a significant user of wireless technology, probably one of the five top users of Emerson wireless technology around the world.

Q: What trends does Emerson see in the industry for the future?

A: There are two primary trends that are affecting the industry. The first one is the aging workforce. Critical knowledge and expertise will leave the worksite. By having a strong measurement infrastructure, processes will be more automated but that does not mean that they necessarily will be better, so Emerson is looking for ways to ensure that its automation equipment takes the knowledge and expertise from the most experienced people and allow for a smoother transition with the new generation, which will have a knowledge base to work with and to build on top of. In this regard Emerson is also taking action to ensure that newer generation familiarize with STEMs and get better opportunities in the industry. Second one is environmental stewardship. In the past, factors like GHG emissions and water quality were not important, but they have become extremely relevant.