Buying equipment for an Iraqi plant
Buying a control valve is the straightforward half of the job. Getting it onto an Iraqi plant is the harder half: the right model for the duty, inspected at the factory where the order calls for it, with the documents Iraqi customs and the contract require, delivered to the site where it is needed. ITS does both halves.
ITS, International Technical Solutions, is a trading and technical-solutions company in Kirkuk. The company was established in Kirkuk in 2021, built on Farooq Mahmood Al Obaidi’s experience in industrial trading since 1980, and its team has supplied Iraq’s oil and gas sector since 2003. ITS supplies industrial equipment to state and private companies across Iraq and manages the route between the manufacturer’s works and the site. This page sets out what it supplies, who it supplies, how an order runs and which documents travel with the equipment.
What ITS supplies
ITS supplies industrial equipment for oil, gas and industry, and spare parts for power stations and refineries. The core lines sit in four specialist divisions, each with its own page:
- Control valves: control valves and positioners, actuators, automatic recirculation valves, safety relief and pressure-reducing valves, and gate, globe, check, ball and plug valves, with OEM spares such as trim, diaphragms and positioners. Makers include Azbil, Komoto, Koso, Schroedahl, YNV, Fevisa and OSV.
- Calibration equipment: calibrators, test benches and reference instruments for pressure, temperature, level and flow, supplied for site and workshop use during maintenance and shutdown campaigns, up to complete calibration rooms built with the manufacturer where the client asks for one. Makers include Time Electronics, with field instruments from Emerson and Turbines, Incorporated.
- Cold boxes and industrial cooling: cold-box modules and insulation, fan stacks, fan assemblies, drive components and replacement parts for gas-processing and cooling installations, from Fives Cryo and Almeco.
- Flare systems: flare tips, pilots and ignition systems, flame arrestors, monitoring panels and burners for oil and gas flare stacks, with spare parts for refinery flares, from NAO.
Beyond the four divisions, ITS supplies mechanical seals (from makers such as Seoul Tech and Pillar), compressors and their spares, pumps and strainers (Northridge Pumps), process instrumentation such as transmitters and flowmeters (Emerson, Turbines, Incorporated), motors, gearboxes and drives (Bonfiglioli), trays and column internals (HST), pipes, fittings and flanges, and original (OEM) spare parts for equipment that is already installed.
Equipment is sourced from manufacturers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, South Korea, Japan and India. The manufacturers page lists every maker ITS supplies and states the relationship ITS holds with each one.
Who ITS supplies
ITS supplies state and private companies across Iraq, oil and gas first:
- Iraq’s state-owned oil and gas operators, through public tender, and the engineering contractors who build and maintain their plants;
- power stations and refineries, with spare parts timed to their shutdown and turnaround work;
- industrial plants;
- private companies, factories and contractors that need equipment without a tender.
Work comes in two ways. State companies buy through public tender, and ITS prepares the bid with the bank guarantees the tender calls for. Private companies and contractors usually send a direct enquiry, such as a datasheet, a nameplate photo or a parts list, and receive a quotation. From that point both follow the same route.
International manufacturers work with ITS from the other side. ITS represents makers’ lines in Iraq, bids the tenders that fit each line with the maker’s equipment, and carries it from the order to the site, with start-up arranged with the manufacturer where the order calls for it.
How an order runs
- Enquiry or tender. An order starts with a datasheet, a tag list, a nameplate photo or a tender document. On a state tender, ITS reads the specification, prices the maker’s scope and submits the bid with the bank guarantees the tender calls for. On a direct enquiry, the offer comes back with the maker, the origin, the lead time and the document plan.
- Sourcing from the manufacturer. The equipment is selected and sized with the manufacturer’s engineers to the duty, meaning pressure, temperature and service, and ordered new and genuine from the original manufacturer or its authorised channel, with the manufacturer’s certificates.
- Factory inspection. Where the order or tender calls for it, the equipment is inspected and tested at origin before shipment, by the third-party inspector the client names.
- Documents. The export papers are prepared with the manufacturer and legalised as Iraqi customs and the contract require.
- Freight and clearance. ITS arranges export, freight and customs clearance in Iraq, through licensed clearing agents.
- Delivery to site. The last mile runs to the plant or field named in the order, anywhere in Iraq, from Kirkuk to Basra. The hand-over ranges from spare parts delivered on site to complete installations built with the manufacturer, such as calibration rooms; start-up is arranged with the manufacturer where the order calls for it.
One desk in Kirkuk holds the order from the first enquiry to the delivery note. That is what ITS means when it says:
ITS takes on large supply packages and runs them from tender to site: tender and quotation with the bank guarantees a tender calls for, sourcing from the manufacturer, inspection where the order calls for it, documents, freight and delivery to site.
Documents and inspection
A consignment for an Iraqi plant is judged on its papers as much as on the equipment. ITS assembles the document file with the manufacturer before the goods move, as the contract sets it, so that it travels with the shipment. It typically includes:
- Inspection certificate at origin, where the order calls for third-party inspection at the manufacturer’s works, by the inspector the client or the tender names.
- Certificate of origin, legalised as customs and the contract require.
- Material and test certificates from the manufacturer, as the order calls for them.
- Commercial documents prepared in the form Iraqi customs and the contract require.
- Bank guarantees, where a state tender calls for them.
Where a tender asks for a letter from the manufacturer, ITS requests it from the manufacturer for that tender. Training at the maker’s works can be arranged where the order includes it.
Why buy from a supplier in Kirkuk
ITS works from Kirkuk, one of Iraq’s oldest oil cities, and answers enquiries in Arabic or English from the same desk that places the order. The people who price the offer are the people who follow the inspection, the documents and the delivery, and who handle the spares that follow.