Global Institute of Logistics Honors Pico Energy

The Global Institute of Logistics has honoured Cairo-based Pico group in recognition of the contribution of its internal logistics team to the development of supply chain excellence in the oil & gas sector. Pico’s logistics team has just been launched as an outsource logistics service provider.

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 11, 2006

The Global Institute of Logistics has honoured Cairo-based PICO group in recognition of the contribution of its internal logistics team to the development of supply chain excellence in the oil & gas sector. PICO’s logistics team has just been launched as an outsource logistics service provider.

The Institute has identified PICO through its research into niche logistics providers, and in particular, into those specialist players who are acting locally but thinking globally.

The focus of the new PICO Logistics is to support the parent company’s key area of interest: the energy industry in Egypt, transporting specialist equipment for drilling, tracking and tracing key assets, even arranging accommodation and catering for staff in the field; however, it will engage in other activities, too.

Even within the energy sector, it has identified the need to respond to changes, with liquid petroleum gas, solar and wind energy beginning to play an important part now.

It has appointed a former Schenker, BAX Global and Panalpina executive, Adel Abou Heneidy, to head up the new division. The company aims to both support internal operations, such as the five oil and gas fields PICO has owned and run in the Gulf of Suez since 1990, and establish itself quickly as a strategic partner in Egypt of prominent multinational oil companies.

The company is adding freight-forwarding and trucking services to its current customs clearance and warehousing services. PICO also has a real estate division, and finding sites on which to build large, modern warehousing facilities in which to store goods and equipment for clients should present few problems.

PICO Logistics' knowledge of health and safety, the environment or about the need for precise timing in an oil-drilling operation are serving to distinguish it from competitors. The company also has a technology advantage over other local energy logistics service providers in that it recognizes the need to offer the owners of the expensive equipment it stores and ships some capability in track and trace.

Advanced software for controlling inventory, assets and even people will be part of the package of services the new outsource logistics division offers. The company plans on using RFID for this, which would constitute the introduction of RFID in Egypt.

PICO ENERGY is a national company driven by multinational orientation. And Managing Director, Sherif Wadood has a global vision.

The Institute believes that while PICO is a relatively small operator, by focusing on a handful of verticals in a limited market, its customers will benefit from a high level of expertise in this demanding energy sector. It is entirely feasible that moving forward, an Egyptian company could be well placed to handle energy logistics in other parts of North Africa, if not in a pan-African context. PICO has the right expertise and the right cost structure and the market dictates that accordingly they will be able to compete with anybody.

Kieran Ring, CEO at the Institute, commenting on today’s announcement said:

“The Institute is delighted to add PICO ENERGY to its register of global logistics operators. Egypt is a very important and strategic location and has long since played the role of educator in the region. It is envisaged that the PICO logistics project will help capture the imagination of business leaders locally and act as a further catalyst for the growing logistics industry.

"The development of a specialist logistics practice within PICO is a welcome development for the energy sector in the region. The level of experience and industry knowledge needed to be a logistics service provider in this vertical particularly as it effects Health and Safety matters is enormous, so much so that in the Institutes opinion product knowledge is in this instance a core competency and something which cannot be easily or effectively outsourced.

"The PICO model however offers the best of both worlds by firstly allowing its Logistics arm to operate independently to the highest global standards within outsourced logistics solutions while at the same time transferring to it PICO’s enormous store of intellectual capital around logistics, gained by the company down through the years.

"The appointment of Mr. Heneidy to lead the initiatives guarantees that the project will have a logistics rather than an energy culture from its inception. Mr. Heneidy comes to the project with a strong reputation as a logistics professional with huge local knowledge and a global perspective gained through his time with multinational logistics providers like Schenker.

"The Institute would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Heneidy and all at PICO on this initiative.”

Reacting to today’s announcement Mr. Adel Abou Heneidy said:

“We will be the distinguished Egyptian logistical solutions’ provider in oil & gas industry, within the next five years; dedicated to providing strategic value to our customers with the highest quality, and personal attention.”

About The Global Institute of Logistics

The Global Institute of Logistics is a community of logisticians and supply chain professionals drawn from the global business community who support the Institutes objectives of creating end-to-end integration and visibility in the global supply chain.

The Institute actively fosters and promotes relationship orientation as its key change agent and catalyst in pursuit of these objectives.

Relationship orientation refers to the proactive creation, development and maintenance of relationships between global supply chain partners resulting in mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises at a profit.

It is the Institute's assertion that the greater the level of relationship orientation between stakeholders, the greater the operational logistics service quality improvements that will result.

The Institute acts in a binary fashion to bring stakeholders together through thought leadership.

This leadership finds expression through RELAY is the Institute’s Official Business Quarterly Magazine and http://www.globeinst.org, the Institute’s online news and research portal, which archives best practice and also through the various Councils chaired and organized by leading professional and populated by industry experts.

The Institute promotes logistics in mainstream media in pursuit of its stated aim of achieving board level status for the profession of logistics and supply chain. We are an accredited news provider to all of the world’s leading search engines including GOOGLE and Yahoo. In the past year, press statements issued by the Institute have been accessed more than 500.000 times on the World Wide Web.

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