KPMG boosts Saudi operation

KPMG, the international accounting firm, has been building its relationship with national oil company Saudi Aramco by moving part of its Energy and Natural Resources practice to Saudi Arabia.

"We moved to Saudi to build relationship with Saudi Aramco, which we saw not just acting like a national oil company but also like an international oil company, with the same corporate mindset, and attitude to project decision making," said Tim Rockell, global executive director of KPMG's Energy and Natural Resources practice.

Rockell's role is to co-ordinate the relationship between KPMG and Saudi Aramco, wherever it happens to be in the world. He says his primary work is to liase with finance and IT departments and help with areas around financing some of Saudi Aramco's joint ventures.

"Downstream in Saudi Arabia, with joint ventures and mega projects there's been a call to do initial public offerings for some of the projects, to help redistribute wealth around the kingdom; we've been providing advice," said Rockell. "NOCS are also trying to behave more like international companies, so that means adding more transparency. We can help them out in those areas, bringing in our experience from IOC clients."

With the practice's chairman based in Moscow, KPMG has got people on top of the energy industry and is clearly backing a growing relationship between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

"We can see a Riyadh-Moscow axis forming, as the two countries become suppliers of energy to the world," said Rockell. "We're also seeing lots of intra-BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) activity, cutting out traditional western companies. BRICs seem prefer to work with each other, as a way of forestalling competition between them, for the resources they need.

"Middle East countries are ideally placed to help countries like China secure resources to fuel growth. It's a two-way win-win: China can access resources and there are a number of projects in both countries where China can supply engineering skills."

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