FOUNDATIONS
Gulf Resources Corporation (GRC) was founded by Mr Hany Salaam over 60 years ago. Early opportunities were mainly financial and real estate oriented but soon expanded into wider innovative solutions to regional issues and needs. At various junctures, prominent international businessmen served on the GRC Board and helped to broaden the companies base. Among these were Lord Hanson and Mr Gordon White both of Hanson Industries, and Mr Tom Ready, President of Kaiser Aluminium. GRC also enjoyed close associations with Canadian entrepreneur Mr Peter Munk of Horsham Corporation and Barrick Gold and Dr Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum Corp of the USA. GRC has always benefited from the inputs of international advisors, industry specialists and senior politicians. This latter group included former USA President Mr Jimmy Carter, former Canadian Prime Minister Mr Brian Mulroney, former President Gloria Macapagal Aroyo of the Philippines, former Speaker of the House Mr Jose De Venecia Jr of the Philippines, the late President Pascale Lissouba of the Congo (Brazzaville), the late President Omar Bongo of Gabon, and the late President Husain Ershad of Bangladesh.
EARLY ACTIVITIES
In the 1960s, GRC, through its wholly owned subsidiary UEC (Universal Exchange Corporation) brokered ground-breaking financings by the National Bank of Kuwait to Lebanon and also developed a consortium with Kidder Peabody of the USA, the United States Commodity Credit Corporation and the Governments of Kuwait and Qatar to restructure and revitalize the ailing Lebanese Intra Bank. At this time, GRC formed a number of sister companies to branch out into other fields such as real estate development, oil and gas development and production, mining and other “heavy” technologies. The principle new companies were Universal Exchange Corporation (UEC), Systems Engineering and Technology Co (SETCO), Trans Mediterranean Consulting (TMC) and Société de Terrain et Batiment (STB).
In 1968, TMC secured a contract to represent Boeing Corporation in the Middle East and successfully arranged sales of aircraft to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and others.
In 1972, UEC established a 51/49 joint venture with ITT Sheraton Group for the development and financing of 17 Sheraton Hotels in Pakistan, Bahrain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Beirut, Damascus and Egypt. The contract ran for 20 years and included management of the hotels. The Bahrain Sheraton hotel, office and retail complex was built and managed exclusively by UEC as a contract variation.
KEY INSIGHTS
In the mid-1970s GRC was among the first to raise concern about the vast quantities of flared natural gas in the Arabian Gulf, produced in association with crude oil. This gas, which at the time had zero value, opened up possibilities for cheap electricity production and ethane-based petrochemicals. In KSA, Dr Ed Awad of SETCO, working in close collaboration with Dr Mustafa Al Mahdi (later to become CEO of SABIC), focused on petrochemicals in the context of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu and brought in Shell Oil of the USA in a concerted technology transfer campaign, thus helping to establish major oil refineries, gas processing and polymer production.
Meanwhile, in Bahrain, GRC, in a joint venture with Kaiser Aluminium, saw an opportunity to establish an aluminium smelting business using imported alumina and cheap electricity generated from flared gas. Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA) was founded and spawned “the Grand Smelting Scheme” which envisaged aluminum production in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Iraq. Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) followed ALBA. Abu Dhabi withdrew from the project but later went out on its own. Unfortunately, Kaiser Aluminium suffered a setback in its USA home market and had to withdraw from the project before the Qatar smelter was underway, and Iraq underwent its own political turmoil around the same time. A GRC company still holds an Alumina Smelting concession in Iraq in association with the Italian company FATA (a division of the Danieli Group).
Although Alumina Smelting by electrolysis is a more extreme process than the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen, there are similarities, so GRC is not a newcomer to the process. GRC has carefully monitored the renewable energy sector and the ever decreasing cost of power so produced. So-called “Green Hydrogen” (made by the electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable sources) is rapidly approaching an economic breakthrough making its use as a fuel a reality. There are many new technologies in this field at various stages of development and GRC keeps abreast of all of them to inform its stance in this exciting new market.
BROADENING THE BASE
In the early 1980’s, the Fidelity Bank building in Philadelphia was acquired; a 1.2 million square feet landmark occupying a complete city block. In Beirut, GRC affiliate STB led the financing and development of the Doha village.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, GRC entered the oil and gas business and forged a strategic alliance with Occidental Petroleum Corporation of the USA (OXY). GRC was already active in the Congo (Brazzaville) with oil projects, Bangladesh with a large gas discovery, and Qatar with an enhanced oil production development. GRC established OXY in the Congo and secured a long-term oil supply deal for them as well as three major offshore concessions. OXY also joint ventured with GRC in Bangladesh and eventually acquired 100% of the project before selling it on through a series of transactions to Chevron Inc. This project now accounts for around 55% of the gas production of Bangladesh. During this period, GRC worked with Bangladesh in trying to expand their electricity supply with barge mounted gas turbines.
GRC’s position in Qatar was transferred to OXY under a 25-year concession (which recently ended). During the life of the concession, oil production was increased 7 fold and the resulting revenue was a welcome boost to OXY, as the company was experiencing problems at the time, and to the host country.
Concurrent with the OXY alliance, GRC developed another strategic alliance with Horsham Corporation of Canada. Horsham owned Barrick Gold, Trizac Hahn (commercial real estate) and Clarke Oil (refining). GRC arranged a long term supply of oil from the Congo to Clark’s refineries, and worked with Barrick Gold to secure a number of gold mining concessions in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. UEC also worked alongside Trizac Hahn (Canada and USA based) in establishing a major commercial and retail real estate portfolio throughout the Far East.
In 1995, GRC and affiliate SETCO took a more active role in the mining sector and worked extensively with Gabon in manganese mining before acquiring a large share in an Australian Manganese mine near Perth.
Around the turn of the century GRC, together with it's subsidiaries UEC and SETCO, started a focus on alternative uses of oil and gas, which resulted in projects in West Africa for methanol production, LNG and petrochemicals. After a long association with Equatorial Guinea, in 2005, UEC in collaboration with the Philippines Bank of Commerce (BOC) and the Government of Equatorial Guinea began the process of establishing a National Bank (Banco Nacional de Guinea Equatorial [BANGE]). UEC holds a 15% interest in the bank through a partnership with BOC and is represented on the Board of Directors. BANGE commenced operations in September 2006.
Around 2007, GRC began to look seriously at the various “green movements” and their potential impact on the oil, gas and petrochemical industries and focus on renewable energy production. Since then, the company has aligned itself with many of the technological leaders in the solar, wind and hydro energy sectors and has a strong understanding of the “green hydrogen” movement and the issues and opportunities surrounding it.
GOING FORWARD
GRC and its sister companies have forged strong links throughout the world and in particular in the MENA (UAE and Morocco) and South European areas, as well as the USA. GRC is ideally situated to organise and develop renewable energy projects and to guide the implementation of green hydrogen manufacture, distribution and usage.
GRC has a good understanding of the benefits of “technology transfer” and maintains a “helicopter” view of a complex and ever shifting energy industry so as to see trends and spot opportunities at an early stage. New developments in battery technology will soon revolutionise renewable electricity generation by improved energy storage. Finally, GRC also keeps abreast of developments in the field of “Artifical Intelligence (AI)” and its potential impact on work practices and social trends in the region as AI moves from “expert systems” to “cognitive decision making”.
To reflect its current geographic focus, GRC recently changed its incorporation jurisdiction to be a Lebanese Offshore Company. It was originally incorporated in Vaduz, Lichtenstein.