1.1 We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors; this policy sets out how we will treat your personal information.
1.2 By using our website and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.
Collecting personal information
2.1 We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal information:
(a) information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths);
(b) information that you provide to us when registering with our website (including your email address)
(c) information that you provide when completing your profile on our website (including your name, user name, country/region, employment details, password);
(d) information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (including your name and email address);
(e) information that you provide to us when using the services on our website, or that is generated in the course of the use of those services (including the timing, frequency and pattern of service use;
(f) information relating to any purchases you make of our goods / services / goods and/or services or any other transactions that you enter into through our website (including your name, address, telephone number, email address and card details;
(g) information that you post to our website for publication on the internet (including your user name, your profile pictures and the content of your posts);
(h) information contained in or relating to any communications that you send to us or send through our website (including the communication content and meta data associated with the communication);
(i) any other personal information that you choose to send to us; and
2.2 Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person's consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with the terms of this policy.
Using your personal information
3.1 Personal information submitted to us through our website will be used for the purposes specified in this policy or on the relevant pages of the website.
3.2 We may use your personal information to:
(a) administer our website and business;
(b) personalise our website for you;
(c) enable your use of the services available on our website;
(d) send you goods purchased through our website;
(e) supply to you services purchased through our website;
(f) send statements, invoices and payment reminders to you, and collect payments from you;
(g) send you non-marketing commercial communications;
(h) send you email notifications that you have specifically requested;
(i) send you our email newsletter, if you have requested it (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require the newsletter);
(j) send you marketing communications relating to our business or the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you, by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
(k) provide third parties with statistical information about our users (but those third parties will not be able to identify any individual user from that information);
(l) deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to our website;
(m) keep our website secure and prevent fraud;
(n) verify compliance with the terms and conditions governing the use of our website (including monitoring private messages sent through our website private messaging service);
3.3 If you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the licence you grant to us.
3.4 Your privacy settings can be used to limit the publication of your information on our website, and can be adjusted using privacy controls on the website.
3.5 We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party's direct marketing.
3.6 All our website financial transactions are handled through our payment services provider, Paypal. You can review the provider's privacy policy at https://www.paypal.com/gr/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full. We will share information with our payment services provider only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds.
Disclosing personal information
4.1 We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
4.2 We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
4.3 We may disclose your personal information:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings;
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
(d) to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling; and
(e) to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.
4.4 Except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your personal information to third parties.
International data transfers
5.1 Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this policy.
5.2 Information that we collect may be transferred to the following countries which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Area: the United States of America, Russia, Japan, China and India.
5.3 Personal information that you publish on our website or submit for publication on our website may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use or misuse of such information by others.
5.4 You expressly agree to the transfers of personal information described in this Section 5.
Retaining personal information
6.1 This Section 6 sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal information.
6.2 Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
6.3 Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 6, we will retain documents (including electronic documents) containing personal data:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) if we believe that the documents may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings; and
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk).
Security of your personal information
7.1 We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.
7.2 We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password- and firewall-protected) servers.
7.3 All electronic financial transactions entered into through our website will be protected by encryption technology.
7.4 You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
7.5 You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential; we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).
Amendments
8.1 We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.
8.2 You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.
8.3 We may notify you of changes to this policy [by email or through the private messaging system on our website.
Your rights
9.1 You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you; provision of such information will be subject to:
(a) the payment of a fee (currently fixed at GBP 10); and
(b) the supply of appropriate evidence of your identity (for this purpose, we will usually accept a photocopy of your passport certified by a solicitor or bank plus an original copy of a utility bill showing your current address).
9.2 We may withhold personal information that you request to the extent permitted by law.
9.3 You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
9.4 In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.
Third party websites
10.1 Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.
10.2 We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.
Updating information
11.1 Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.
Part 2: Cookies
About cookies
1.1 A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
1.2 Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
1.3 Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
1.4 Cookies can be used by web servers to identity and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website.
Our cookies
2.1 We use only both session and persistent cookies on our website.
2.2 The names of the cookies that we use on our website, and the purposes for which they are used, are set out below:
(a) we use session cookie on our website to recognise a computer when a user visits the website and track users as they navigate the website;
(b) we use secure cookie on our website to prevent fraud and improve the security of the website;
(c) Persistent cookies will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date;
Analytics cookies
3.1 We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website.
3.2 Our analytics service provider generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies.
3.3 The analytics cookies used by our website have the following names: _utma, _utmt, _utmb, _utmc, _utmv and _utmz
3.4 The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website.
3.5 Our analytics service provider's privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
Third party cookies
4.1 Our website also uses third party cookies.
Blocking cookies
5.1 Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies; for example:
(a) in Internet Explorer (version 10) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking "Tools", "Internet Options", "Privacy" and then "Advanced";
(b) in Firefox (version 24) you can block all cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options", "Privacy", selecting "Use custom settings for history" from the drop-down menu, and unticking "Accept cookies from sites"; and
(c) in Chrome (version 29), you can block all cookies by accessing the "Customise and control" menu, and clicking "Settings", "Show advanced settings" and "Content settings", and then selecting "Block sites from setting any data" under the "Cookies" heading.
5.2 Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.
5.3 If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.
Deleting cookies
6.1 You can delete cookies already stored on your computer; for example:
(a) in Internet Explorer (version 10), you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835);
(b) in Firefox (version 24), you can delete cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options" and "Privacy", then selecting "Use custom settings for history", clicking "Show Cookies", and then clicking "Remove All Cookies"; and
(c) in Chrome (version 29), you can delete all cookies by accessing the "Customise and control" menu, and clicking "Settings", "Show advanced settings" and "Clear browsing data", and then selecting "Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data" before clicking "Clear browsing data".
6.2 Deleting cookies will have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.
Cookie preferences
7.1 You can manage your preferences relating to the use of cookies on our website by visiting: controls below
Part 3: Our details
Data protection registration
1.1 We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner's Office.
Our details
2.1 This website is owned and operated by Focus Reports Ltd.
2.2 We are registered in England and Wales under registration number 7676770, and our registered office is at Lynton House, 7-12 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9LT, United Kingdom.
2.3 You can contact us by writing to the business address given above, by using our website contact form or by telephone on +441707828754.
In April 2014, Walid Sfeir took the helm of Sofregaz, a longstanding engineering company specialized in gas. The president emphasizes the company’s ability to deliver a comprehensive set of services, in the LNG sector notably.
Sofregaz boasts nearly 60 years of history as an engineering firm specializing in the gas market. Could you explain the rationale behind the acquisition of Sofregaz by your private equity firm?
Sofregaz belonged to an important EPC player in the industry until we acquired the company about a year ago (April 2014). We believed in Sofregaz’s potential and know-how. Many players criticize the high labor costs and rigid labor market found in France, but we have faith in high added value, productivity and talent of French engineering. The oil and gas industry survives in France because of its deeply entrenched network of research centers, universities and headquarters of important players: Total, Technip and Engie. France benefits tremendously from this cluster of know-how, and capitalizes on innovative solutions and technology to consolidate its competitive advantages. There is actually a trend in the industry to revert back to more expensive and high value added Engineering know-how.
In the last 10 years, oil and gas players have consistently sought cheaper costs and savings. Although it is still natural to reduce Capex, many players realized that what seemed like cheaper ventures did not always materialize. Regarding TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) many players have underestimated operating expenses, costs of studies and engineering, equipment life, transport and so forth. We hear from our clients that they are willing to spend 15 to 20% more on engineering in order to achieve substantial savings on the life value of their project. Sofregaz is an expensive company to run due to the cost structure, but once again we emphasize on quality engineering that generates reliability, smarter solutions and reduced Capex.
Sofregaz is now an independent engineering player, which allows us to work with all clients. Sofregaz provides services from the wellhead to the refinery including gas treatment and gas gathering, transportation on pipelines and re-gas.
Since we acquired the company, we have concentrated our efforts on Sofregaz’s core activities. We are currently focusing on LNG and receiving terminals in particular. Sofregaz has developed an expertise in the LNG process; it boasts a tradition in process engineering and receiving LNG terminals and builds on these experiences to move up in the value chain to work on solutions like mid-scale regasification terminals, LNG bunkering solutions, vaporizers and recondensers modular solutions.
As you just mentioned, Sofregaz operates on the full spectrum of the gas chain and delivers a variety of solutions including Gas gathering & Treatment, underground storage, LNG chain and pipeline transmission. What constitutes your core business and how would you describe Sofregaz’ uniqueness and edge in the famous “EPC world”?
The first distinctive feature I wish to highlight is Sofregaz’s longstanding presence in certain key markets including Algeria and Iraq. Sofregaz has fostered deep ties, demonstrated its competencies and become a partner of choice for gas companies operating in these countries. I am also confident that our historical references in Iran will enable us to secure important market shares as the geopolitical situation unfolds.
Sofregaz’s vast credentials and the extraordinary strength of its robust portfolio comprising more than 1000 references, constitute one of our most significant assets. Sofregaz has completed over 900 projects in 85 countries. The company boasts an undisputed worldwide reputation that is the fruit of continuous technological excellence, innovation and passion, notably in the Natural Gas sector. In this respect, Sofregaz has conducted 85 projects in LNG only.
When we look at your global operations, we see a solid presence in Europe, Algeria, the Middle East, India and China. How are you planning on capitalizing on the tremendous growth potential offered by Asia and particularly China?
Sofregaz is well positioned in China where it has designed and built nine terminals. We are unfortunately absent in other Asian countries such as Japan and Southeast Asia. Our small size did not entitle to us to cover this considerable geographic area and has compelled us to make hard choices. At this stage, except China, we decided to initially implement our services in locations in close proximity to Paris: Africa, the Middle East and Europe of course. In the short run, we need to find a trusted commercial local partner or joint venture in Asia to successfully integrate our services.
Sofregaz’s philosophy consists in exporting French know how related to gas. In this regard, changes of shareholders and ownership structure have not altered these fundamentals. Sofregaz generates 95% of its revenues outside of France and has worked in 85 countries. To be successful in the Chinese market, one must position itself early, foster strong ties with local counterparts and adopt a long-term strategy. Sofregaz focuses on upstream and midstream and must therefore emphasize on countries like Algeria, which is currently revamping its production facilities. In Eastern Africa and Francophone Africa, we have positioned ourselves ahead of our Anglo-Saxon counterparts.
Australia will become the world’s largest LNG producer by 2019, and we note that Sofregaz has worked on France’s key LNG terminal in Fos-Cavaou. How can Sofregaz grasp a share of the major LNG developments about to come?
LNG is divided into two markets: liquefaction, which requires huge capacities and receiving terminals, where we can operate anywhere worldwide. In this regard, we usually operate as engineering partners of EPC contractors. We can also produce FEEDs independently. Our objective is to become a partner of choice to the EPC players, in a few specific projects and to offer modular-solutions in mid scale regasification, bunkering, vaporizers and recondensers. The oil and gas industry is going through unprecedented changes and Sofregaz must adapt to upcoming market trends.
If you had to sum up in a few words, what makes Sofregaz a partner of choice for complex engineering gas projects, what would those be?
I would like Sofregaz to be recognized as a French routed yet international, fast, reliable and flexible engineering firm capable of delivering complex projects anywhere in the world. I strive to for Sofregaz to earn the recognition it deserves for its deep expertise and creative solutions in Gas treatment and LNG.