Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and North Africa, announces that its fully owned subsidiary Zain Drone, has entered a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) to provide digital inspection services in the MENA and Turkey region. The agreement was penciled on the sidelines of the 24th World Energy Congress held in Abu Dhabi, UAE and will allow the two entities to explore ways in which they can offer full inspection capabilities for customers’ assets and infrastructure in the energy sector.

Together, Zain Drone and BHGE would be able to support the growing demand to replace physical inspections with digital inspections, reducing physical inspection hours, costs, manual labor, human error and shut-down time for operators.

Commenting on the MoU, Zain Group CEO of Operations, Scott Gegenheimer commented, “This agreement marks a significant step forward for Zain Drone with respect to addressing another key vertical sector – the energy sector – with our services. Partnering in this area with an established company with the reputation of BHGE is also extremely positive, and together I am confident we can offer the energy industry some of the most compelling and precise remote digital inspection services in the market.”

Rami Qasem, President & CEO, BHGE’s Measurement & Controls, said: “Our collaboration with Zain Drone can have significant benefits for the energy industry. As a true innovator in the region, Zain Drone has developed impressive capabilities to use drones in industrial environments, and BHGE’s advanced inspection services will help to usher in a new era of digital inspection for our customers.”

Zain Drone as-a-Service (DaaS) offering unlocks opportunities in various industries to fast-track growth and exploit the Internet of Things (IoT) in an efficient, safer and faster way. The offering delivers state-of-the-art bespoke drone solutions and provides advanced analytics for governments and businesses. Zain DaaS facilitates the gathering of image data concerning work advancement through measurement of key parameters, assessing image data to evaluate compliance with original designs, and performing automated stock-taking.