SPIDER Egypt for Petroleum Services , once a small Egyptian start-up that has become one of Halliburton ’ s strategic partners providing Petroleum Services and qualifi ed talented geoscientists across MENA region , was founded and registered with the EGPC ( Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation ) in 2002 . Since then it has experienced a gradual growth rooted in two interrelated activities – our breakthrough pressure measurement technology and supply of manpower . The aim of this article is to acknowledge the role that Halliburton has played in facilitating SPIDER ’ s growth and to express a thank-you for everything that the partnership with Halliburton means for us .

Originally , SPIDER ’ s purpose was to introduce and promote the technology of SPIDR ( Self-Powered Intelligent Data Retrieval ) acquired from our former partner DRC ( Data Retrieval Corporation ). In fact , the name ‘ Spider ’ aims to invoke the very idea of how our technology works – a quick little spider climbing up and down the hole to retrieve the pressure data . This busy little spider is of course a metaphor – SPIDR does not send any eight-legged creatures hung on a silk string down the well . In fact there is no need for ANY downhole runs as SPIDR is essentially a non-invasive technology using the power of its internal dual quartz pressure transducer , a shear mode and quartz crystal resonator that changes frequency with pressure .

At the very beginning SPIDER had a hard time persuading the prospective clients about the workings of SPIDR technology . When our consultants fi rst presented SPIDR as being able to test almost any gas well for a fraction of the cost of a conventional downhole test , some clients have found it too good to be true . In response to that ( after several unsuccessful presentations ) we have come up with a bold idea – free trials of SPIDR that would be compared with DHGs ( downhole gauges ). As expected , SPIDR has produced very comparable measurements on almost all the wells tested ( while virtually eliminating risk from hydrogen sulfi de leaks or high pressures thanks to being non-invasive ). These free-trials have fi nally won SPIDER a place with several companies operating in Egypt and over the time established SPIDR as one of the market leaders for non-invasive pressure measurement . Our business has fi nally started to feel the growing demand and we have gradually introduced new products such as reservoir engineering consultancy and additional services for measuring the liquid fl uid levels across Egypt . Times were really good … but then the fi nancial crisis hit the oil industry .

The year 2008 was probably the toughest year for SPIDER , yet luckiest at the same time . Just as the company was expanding , our clients started to limit their spending in response to falling oil prices . Frustrated