One of Saudi Arabia’s prominent manufacturers of valves and process instruments has announced it will raise production capacity by 25 per cent soon.

Dresser Al-Rushaid Valve and Instruments Co (Darvico) said its office staff in Jubail would move to a new building leaving additional space for production-related activities.
Darvico currently has capacity to produce and test more than 10,000 safety relief valves, 3,000 control valves and 45,000 pressure gauges annually. The company’s manufacturing ranges come under the Masoneilan, Consolidated and Ashrcroft brands.
General manager DR Pai said capacity would be hiked for standard Masoneilan globe reciprocating valves up to 20 inches, Masoneilan rotary vales up to 16 inches, Consolidated conventional safety valves up to 12 x 16 inches and Ashcroft gauges of standard size and range.
Pai said the expansion was essential in view of rising market demand for the company’s products.
“The Dresser and Al Rushaid managements are committed to building up manufacturing capacity locally both in terms of products and volume to cater to increasing demand for products and services,” Pai said.
Darvico also imports special Dresser products and equipment and accessories as complete units from Dresser affiliates worldwide. The material includes Smart positioner Model SVI IIAP, Foundation Fieldbus Model FVP and engineered products such as the Lincolnlog valve, the V-Log valve and Pilot-operated safety valves. 
Darvico, incorporated in 1983, is the product of a joint venture between Al Rushaid Petroleum Investment Co Ltd and Dresser Industries Inc (USA).
The company has targeted sales of SR150 million ($40.05 million) for this year against sales of SR128 million in 2007 and SR75 million in 2006.
Pai said he was optimistic of achieving the target taking into account projects that are in the engineering, procurement and construction stage and which could requisition Darvico valves.
Darvico has been associated with the leading names in Saudi industry. Some of the ongoing projects it is supplying to are the Khursaniyah gas plant, Hawiyah, Jumaymah Khurais, Yansab and Jana. Among its main customers are Sabic, Sceco, SWCC, Samref and Luberef while contracting companies it has done business with include Bechtel, Technip, Snamprogetti, SCN Lavlin, Fluor, Toyo and Stone & Webster.
The company does not export as there is a big demand in Saudi Arabia itself. Under a new marketing policy, Darvico is encouraging local vendors to deal with project orders, a move it believes will promote the development of the Saudi economy. The company has introduced a new system and software to retrieve details of any order within seconds. “This system has eliminated the initial struggle Darvico faced in serving its customers,” said Pai.
Discussing production aspects, Pai said: “This is carried out in two dust-proof factory sheds, each of areas 2,250 sq m under strict conformity to Dresser’s manu-facturing and quality assurance procedures. This ensures that all products made by Darvico have the same field performance as those made in Dresser plants in the US and worldwide.
“Care and attention are given to every product from inception to final assembly. The end result is a thoroughly engineered product that is precise, dependable and durabe in the extreme climatic conditions prevailing in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arabian Gulf.
“For over 25 years we have manufactured and supplied valves and process instruments that are considered to be benchmark for products of their kind and useful adjuncts to process industries.”
The Masoneilan products it makes include general and severe service control valves, pressure regulators, level transmitters and smart positioners. The Consolidated products it manufactures are safety relief valves. Under Ashcroft it makes pressure gauges, temperature measuring instruments and differential pressure switches.
As well as the Jubail production facilities, the company operates a repair centre at Yanbu to overhaul control valves and safety relief valves in the entire western region. The company will augment equipment at the centre and recruit additional staff.
Commenting on quality assurance, Pai says: “Our shops have been audited and approved by the National Boiler Board of the US and we have the ASME certificate of authorisation for stamping our safety relief valves with the UV and NB stamps.
“We hold the VR stamp for valve repair.  Darvico is a Masoneilan-authorised repair centre (Marc) for control valves, regulators and level instruments.
“Our quality system has been audited and approved by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Ltd and we have been certified to ISO 9001-2000. Our pressure and temperature switches are UL-listed and are certified by Underwriters Laboratories and the European Cenelac Standards as explosion-proof and suitable for installation in hazardous locations.