Petroleum Development Oman has made huge strides in supporting omani job creation, developing local supply chains and supporting the community, says the company’s External Affairs and Value Creation Director, Abdulamir Abdul-Hussein Al Ajmi, while talking to OGR. Excerpts of the interview:
How do you look at your journey with PDO?
I’m an out and out PDO man. After finishing my Bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from the University of Leeds in the UK, I started my professional career with PDO in 1995 as a Construction Supervisor in Yibal field. Thereafter, I took up various positions in the areas of construction supervision, project management, sustainable development, change management, external affairs and engineering before taking up my current position.
The great thing about PDO is that it encourages you to think differently, empowers you to innovate and apply creative thinking to achieve the desired results for the organisation and society. I have been a witness to some of the milestones in the Company’s journey, such as the transition from conventional oil to enhanced oil recovery (EOR), step changes in the deployment of new technologies and HR development, and our In-Country Value (ICV) strategy roll-out to name a few. PDO to me is a university.
There is no end to the learning over here, no matter how senior you have become or how many years you have spent here. It prepares you to perform under any circumstances and achieve the desired goals. No wonder many successful leaders in the corporate sector or government bodies have their roots in PDO. It is an honour for me to work for a great institution like PDO that has enabled me to continuously develop my skills and become a productive resource for the benefit of my beloved country.
PDO takes great pride in serving the nation by going beyond its mandate to explore and produce oil, and operate the gas fields and processing plants for the Government of Oman. Can you elucidate further how the Company is achieving this?
Our key contribution to the nation is value creation. The exploration and production of oil and gas is definitely our core mandate but we take great pride in serving the interests of the society and economy of the Sultanate by focusing on value creation.
If you look at our performance ever since oil prices starting coming down from their historic levels in 2014, we have improved on all indicators. How have we achieved this? By doing more for less. This has helped us to manage our expenditure more effectively, leading to substantial savings for our shareholders.
Simultaneously, we have managed to create thousands of jobs directly or indirectly for Omani nationals. We take great pride in localisation of industries in Oman. We are focusing a lot on the manufacturing and supply of products that we require in our various projects within Oman. We have signed up for many agreements with Omani companies in this area. We are committed to taking all the steps that enable us to add value to the Sultanate.
For us, our most important asset is our people. We devote a sufficient amount of our budget towards training and skill development programmes across all levels and functions for the benefit of our staff so that they can move up in the value chain and continue to become more valuable for the company and the country. We are making efforts to ensure a larger number of people can benefit from such programmes. For example, we are bringing in expert trainers to Oman so that more people can benefit by attending their training programmes and upgrade their skills, just one example of how we are doing more for less.
