al manhal A fount of knowledge Issue two 2014 - PDO...Wadi Shab al manhal A fount of knowledge Issue two 2014 “In a time of increasing importance of the role of media in contemporary

A m a g a z i n e e x p l o r i n g t h e o i l a n d g a s i n d u s t r y

121002A day in the life of...

Omani jobs for skilled Omani workers

Solar renewable energy: past, present and future

Enchanting Oman: Wadi Shab

al manhal

A fount of knowledge

Issue two 2014

“In a time of increasing importance of the role of media in contemporary life of communities and peoples, it is necessary to work on the development of Omani media, to lead message in the development of the capacity citizen

and awareness in turn in the building and his country, and also it contributes to the consolidation of the relations of friendship and cooperation with the

international community”

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said

© 2014 Petroleum Development OmanArticles from al manhal may be reprinted without specific permission on condition that: the text be neither edited nor abridged; the magazine and Petroleum Development Oman be credited; and a copy of the reprinted article be provided to al manhal’s managing editor.

Production ManagerKarima al Shahaibi

Graphic Design Mohammed al Mahrazi

Design ConsultantsUnited Media Services LLC

Translation & EditingSaleh al Alawi, Yaqoub al-Mufargi,Ikhlas al Waili & Mohammed al Arymi

PrinterLoay International LLC

Advisory BoardSuleiman al Manthari, External Affairs and Communications Manager, PDOAbla al Riyami, In-Country Value Director, PDOIntisaar al Kindy, Exploration Director, PDODr. Saleh al Anbouri, Ministry of Oil and GasDr. Rashid al Maamari, Sultan Qaboos UniversityProf. Sobhi Nasir, Sultan Qaboos University

Address editorial correspondence to:Corporate CommunicationsPDO, P.O. Box 81Muscat 100, [email protected]

Dear Readers,Welcome to issue two of al manhal for 2014. As ever, we have

a range of features which we hope will enrich your knowledge about Oman’s oil and gas industry and the important role PDO plays within it.

Turn to the centre pages and you’ll also find the first of a brand new feature series – My Oman – that celebrates the incomparable beauty of our country. This colourful addition to al manhal is produced in association with PDO employee and keen photographer Mohammed al Mahrazy, with Wadi Shab the first natural wonder to be captured by his lens.

Our main industry topic this issue looks at the potential for solar renewable energy to power the oil and gas sector, spotlighting the successful launch of PDO’s solar steam generation pilot at Amal and revealing plans for an exciting new solar power project.

Our next topic concerns business ethics – an issue that has been high on Oman’s agenda. We look at a few of the ways PDO is helping to ensure its staff ‘do the right thing’ as well as pinpointing some of the wrong turns that can lead down the path to corruption.

Our ever-popular Day in the Life feature is a little different this time around. We’ve put Well and Reservoir Management Planner, Hussain al Noumani in the hotseat, but instead of focusing on his daily work routine we’ve taken key milestones in his PDO career, to underline the possibilities for personal and professional growth that the Company offers its high fliers.

Last, but certainly not least, we turn our attention to the important work PDO is doing – in partnership with the government and the contractor community – to provide thousands of good job opportunities for young Omanis within the oil and gas industry.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed preparing it. Also, have you noticed our new look and feel? We always welcome your comments and feedback so feel free to contact us using the details on the right side of the page!

Regards,

Team al manhal

Distributed every quarter to Sultan Qaboos University, local private and government colleges, and schools.

Contents02

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Solar renewable energy: past, present and futureWith PDO’s first major solar energy pilot now successfully up and running, al manhal looks at the future for solar power in the oil and gas industry.

Ethics: why it’s everybody’s businessWith governments and wider society demanding the highest standards of ethics from the business world, PDO is stepping up its efforts to ensure staff ‘do the right thing’.

Omani jobs for skilled Omani workers

A day in the life of...

16Enchanting Oman: Wadi Shab

Solar renewable energy: past, present and futureWith PDO’s first major solar energy pilot now successfully up and running, al manhal looks at the future for solar power in the oil and gas industry.

When PDO’s Head of New Technology Implementation, Dr Syham Bentouati, received the call on her mobile phone she couldn’t help but flash a smile of satisfaction: the Amal solar steam pilot was up and running – on time and on budget!

The plant, which was featured in al manhal’s first issue of 2013, started producing steam on 12 December 2012 – or 12/12/12 to give its more auspicious shorthand. From there, the plant was quickly brought up to full speed and by 1 February 2013 the clock could start on its first complete year of operation.

By the time that year was over, the plant’s use of sunshine to generate steam was estimated to have saved almost a million cubic metres of natural gas, at the same time reducing PDO’s carbon footprint by some 1,800 tonnes of CO2.

From a technical perspective, the plant worked even better than anticipated, with the average volume of steam generated around 4% to 5% in excess of the contractual obligation. There were a few learnings along the way; most notably relating to the

construction of the outer glasshouse that protected the sunlight collecting mirrors. This glasshouse came from Holland, and featured a ceiling system that was sealed to the metal frame using plastic. That might be OK in a more temperate European country, but in the baking Middle Eastern sun the plastic deformed, breaking the seal. The defect didn’t come to light until the glasshouse sprang a leak during the

major storm of April 2013, but once discovered it was quickly rectified without the need to turn off the steam generation.

In fact, during that same storm the overall integrity of the solar steam process was underlined when it was the only operation in the

neighbouring area that didn’t need to be shut down due to the effects of the bad weather.

Amal works – what next?So the concept of solar steam generation is

proven. What next? The simple answer might be to simply scale things up; to have solar power contribute significantly to the steam at Amal or one of PDO’s

Amal works, what next?

02

03

other thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects.

However, there’s a major challenge in terms of the footprint such a plant would occupy. At the moment, with its relatively limited, 50 tonnes per day contribution to the overall steam needs at Amal, the pilot solar facility forms a reasonably compact site equivalent to a couple of football pitches. To cover all of Amal’s daily needs of around 5,000-6,000 tonnes, the solar plant would have to grow to cover more than 200 football pitches. And this is not even a particularly substantial project by thermal EOR standards: the equivalent project at Qarn Alam gets through 20,000 tonnes of steam a day!

And then, of course, there’s the question of what happens at night. Steam injection is a 24/7 process in most applications and even though the Omani day is a consistently long one due to the country’s equatorial location, there are numerous hours of darkness when the solar energy collecting mirrors fall idle. The straight-forward solution is to run a gas-powered boiler to fill in the gaps – the more challenging, but more sustainable, option is to introduce some form of heat storage that can be fed by the sun during the day then tapped during the night.

There are two significant challenges involved, though. First the size of the solar plant would have to at least be doubled, to create sufficient capacity to cover both daily and nightly steam requirements while the sun shines.

Second, an appropriate storage medium would have to be chosen. There are a few options out there, but one has been reasonably proven in real world conditions, namely molten salt. As its name suggests, this is a form of salt that becomes liquid when subjected to very high temperatures, with this latent heat

able to be extracted later as required. On a simpler level, the heat can also be stored in blocks of concrete, although this is much less efficient. Even pools of water have been proposed for heat storage, although again, efficiency is questionable.

Solar energy in OmanGiven its mid-year publication date, you are no doubt

reading this issue of al manhal while sheltering from the searing Middle Eastern sun in an air-conditioned room somewhere. As such a sunny country, Oman must be among the premier places for solar energy to take hold, right?

04

Solar energy in Oman

05The simple answer is ‘yes’. As already mentioned,

Oman’s equatorial location means it gets a better quality of sunshine than many other parts of the world. The sun shines for a fairly consistent amount of time each day throughout the year, particularly when compared with parts of northern Europe where the sun completely disappears for large stretches of winter time.

However, there are a few nuances that also need to be considered by any organisation planning a large-scale solar project. And one of these is dust. If you look at a satellite image of the Gulf region you’ll usually see a cloud of dust in the atmosphere, mostly sand that’s whipped up by the desert winds. The dust layer acts as a screen, preventing a proportion (anything up to 5%) of the radiation emitted by the sun from reaching the earth’s surface. This radiation is vital for solar heat/energy generation, so any drop-off reduces a plant’s overall effectiveness.

The dust creates another, more practical problem: whenever there’s a heavy dew or rainfall it mixes with the water and is deposited as mud on any solar panels facing upwards to catch the sun. This mud dries like cement, giving a major headache to the operational staff required to keep the panels clean. Remember where we talked about a solar field the size of 200 football pitches? Imagine trying to keep that clean.

While they represent important technical and operational challenges to be factored in, none of these

issues around solar energy should be thought of as show stoppers. Indeed, PDO is now pressing ahead with its next major solar power pilot (see panel). The Company is also investigating the potential for solar desalination plants, whereby the sun’s energy would heat salty water sufficiently to boil it, with the vapour then condensed back to clean water.

Finally, solar energy is also being considered to power an unconventional water disposal project that would extract salt from the hyper-saline produced water typical of northern oilfields such as Fahud and Yibal. This salt has a number of uses – for example, in drilling – but the trick is to flow it into pools that are the optimal size and depth to maximise evaporation.

The message to be drawn from all these initiatives is that solar power is something PDO is taking very seriously as it looks to meet future energy challenges as well as to reduce its environmental footprint. Oman as a country needs every cubic metre of gas it can get hold of. Diversifying the economy into new areas such as manufacturing and petrochemicals depends on a ready supply of gas, while closer to home, PDO’s EOR activities – so essential to maintaining production from maturing fields – must also be fed by copious amounts of gas.

Thus solar, as a clean, renewable gas substitute, makes all sorts of sense provided it can be tamed effectively. Expect to see plenty more about cutting-edge solar technologies in future issues of al manhal.

06

Technology Corner

07As al manhal went to press, PDO

had begun a study to assess the options for building a solar power plant that would have a generating capacity of 5MW. PDO is calling this a pilot project, but that is a serious amount of power in its own right, in keeping with the Company’s ethos to make such initiatives large enough to be meaningful in terms of impact, learning experience and capacity to scale up.

The key to making such a plant most effective is location: it needs to be in the best sun trap available, somewhere that is protected as much as possible from heavy dews and wind-borne dust, as well as being where the maximum amount of ‘good’ solar radiation touches down on earth.

Although nothing has been decided yet, there is a good chance that the generating technology that will be deployed is photovoltaic panels, also known as PVs.

PVs contain groups of cells, which are made from thin layers of semiconductor material, usually silicon. This semiconductor wafer is specially treated to form an electric field, positive on one side and negative on the other. When light energy strikes the solar cell, electrons are knocked loose from the atoms in the semiconductor material. If electrical conductors are attached to the positive and negative sides, forming

an electrical circuit, the electrons can be captured in the form of an electric current – that is, electricity.

The amount of electricity produced is directly dependent on how much light strikes the panel, hence the need for it to be located in as sunny a spot as possible and for it to be kept spotlessly clean.

While PDO’s pilot PV plant is a significant size, it is dwarfed by some of the world’s largest plants of this type. Many of these are located in the United States, although China is fast becoming a major solar power, with its

320MW Longyangxia Hydro-solar PV Station in Qinghai Province said to be the world’s largest commissioned plant to date.

Meanwhile, earlier this year India pledged to build the world’s most powerful solar plant. Located in the state of Rajasthan, this proposed behemoth

would be spread over 77 square kilometres, an expanse of land that’s bigger than Manhattan Island in the US. It is planned to have a nominal capacity of 4,000 MW, equivalent to four full-size nuclear reactors, and should generate around 6.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.

Such moves demonstrate that the global solar race is well and truly on, and the earth’s precious natural resources, not to mention its environment, look set to be the clear winners.

PDO prepares to build Oman’s largest solar power plant

08

With governments and wider society demanding the highest standards of ethics from the business world, PDO is stepping up its efforts to ensure staff ‘do the right thing’.

Relationships keep the corporate world turning. People tend to do business with people they like, so developing and sustaining strong bonds at an individual level can bring years of rewards at a company level.

In the past, and in many places in of the world, maintaining that relationship with a gift here, a nice meal there, or trip to a major sporting event as a special treat, was seen as part and parcel of the job. But where is the line before such indulgence crosses into darker territory, where the ‘treat’ becomes an expectation, even one that stretches as far as hard cash?

It’s an issue that has vexed the business world for years, but recently it has become a matter for governments, notably in the Middle East region, where a good proportion of the public discontent that prompted civil unrest in 2011 was concerned with a perception of high levels of corruption.

In Oman, the government has significantly enhanced its anti-corruption efforts in recent years, tightening

legislation, giving more powers to the State Audit Institution and tripling the numbers of civil servants tasked with investigating bribery

and corruption matters. The judiciary has also been separated from the rest of the machinery of government, giving it more independence.

At PDO, formal business ethics principles have been in place since the early 1980s. In

2010, a new Ethics and Compliance team was created; a dedicated resource that represented

something of a rarity in Omani corporate circles at that time. The ethics and compliance function,

which sits within PDO’s Legal Department, was tasked with things like managing business ethics systems

and processes, handling investigations and reporting.

Ethics: why it’s everybody’s business

Committed to theCommitted to thePDO CODEOF CONDUCTCommitted to People & SafetyCommitted to Fight Corrupt PracticesCommitted to Safeguard Information & AssetsCommitted to Prudent CommunicationCommitted to Fair National & International Trade

Make PDO proud.Let’s show our commitment...

Poster valid till 31 August, 2011

DOTHE RIGHT

THING

DOTHE RIGHT

THINGLet’s show our commitment. Make PDO proud.

Link to PDO-COC: http://sww.pdo.shell.om/sites/fd/FLG/default.aspx

THE PDO CODE OF CONDUCTAdherence to the conduct is pivotal and a sure way to uphold our integrity and ethical values in everything we do.

Commitment to People and Safety• Health, Safety & Environment (HSE)• Equal Opportunity• Harassment• Substance Abuse

Commitment to Safeguard Information and Assets • Intellectual Property• Data Privacy & Protection• Records Management• Protection of Corporate Assets

Commitment to Fair National &International Trade• Free & Fair Competition• Import-Export Control & Sanctions

Commitment to Fight Corrupt Practices• Anti-Bribery & Corruption

• Conflict of Interest• Gifts & Hospitality• Money Laundering

Commitment to Prudent Communication• Business Communication & the Email Code

• Personal Use of IT & Communications• Public Disclosure

• Financial Reporting

Raoul Restucci Managing Director

09

Since then, many improvements were introduced in PDO by the Compliance team. This started with the introduction of an enhanced code of conduct, with increased focus on conflict of interest, bribery and corruption. Staff were reminded of the key

behavioural principles the Company wanted them to comply with. At the same

time, a new ‘Blow The Whistle’ process was launched, offering a confidential reporting

mechanism for anyone witnessing or hearing about suspect behaviour.

Next up was implementing a more thorough system of investigating incidents, with a new committee established to decide the consequences of investigated matters, all of which are also reported to the State Audit Institution, Public Prosecutor or Royal Oman Police, depending on the seriousness of the case. Training and communication campaigns were also launched throughout PDO and the automatic/online reporting of potential conflicts was introduced, to comply with the new legislation on conflict of interest.

The goal driving all of these parallel efforts is to use the enhanced governance regime as a stepping stone to changing employee behaviours, so that even also the slightest unethical behaviour becomes as unacceptable as unsafe behaviours are within the Company in its Goal Zero and zero tolerance drive on safety. That’s a tough, long-term process, but PDO is pursuing it with vigour as it aims to retain its his role as the leading company driving best practices in the Oman oil and gas business..

Bringing business ethics to life for PDO staff

The primary mechanism being used to change attitudes is training. Each year, hundreds of employees undergo face-to-face fraud awareness training, a programme that peaked last year with no fewer than 1,300 individuals attending courses. This year, a new online training module will also be made available, while bespoke programmes catering for particular departments’ needs can also be arranged.

Business ethics also features strongly on internal communications collateral, including screensaver messages and a rotating series of campaign messages that appear on the public TV screens dotted around the Company’s offices. The launch slogan for this programme

It's your chance to stand up against corruption.

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Let’s show our commitment. Make PDO proud.

Link to PDO-COC: http://sww.pdo.shell.om/sites/fd/FLG/default.aspx

THE PDO CODE OF CONDUCTAdherence to the conduct is pivotal and a sure way to uphold our integrity and ethical values in everything we do.

Commitment to People and Safety• Health, Safety & Environment (HSE)• Equal Opportunity• Harassment• Substance Abuse

Commitment to Safeguard Information and Assets • Intellectual Property• Data Privacy & Protection• Records Management• Protection of Corporate Assets

Commitment to Fair National &International Trade• Free & Fair Competition• Import-Export Control & Sanctions

Commitment to Fight Corrupt Practices• Anti-Bribery & Corruption

• Conflict of Interest• Gifts & Hospitality• Money Laundering

Commitment to Prudent Communication• Business Communication & the Email Code

• Personal Use of IT & Communications• Public Disclosure

• Financial Reporting

Raoul Restucci Managing Director

10

The slippery slope to corruption

PDO’s Head of Ethics and Compliance is Tertius Stapelberg. A former police officer and a man vastly experienced in dealing with these matters, he gave al manhal an insight into how seemingly harmless gifts and hospitality can overstep the line into something more dangerous to all concerned.

“Gifts and hospitality given too freely and regularly are a major driver of bribery and corruption, because once people get used to these small gifts it becomes the norm, and that opens the door to any unscrupulous supplier wishing to misuse the situation.

“When it comes to money being offered, the answer should always be ‘no’. But that can be a difficult thing to say when the offer is on the table and there are only two people in the room. You might say no once, twice, maybe more times; but then there might be a situation where you need the money – say for an illness in the family. However, once you’ve taken it you’ve crossed a line that is very, very difficult to pull back from. And that’s the start of a corrupt relationship.

“Worse still, the logic is that once you’ve accepted a bribe you are open to blackmail in future, so you are really at the mercy of the other party. They can exploit that weakness in a single meeting to have you under their control for the rest of your business life.”

Gifts Hospitality and Travel�• Gifts or hospitality should never influence imminentbusiness decision-making processes or cause others to

perceive an influence

was ‘Say No To Bribery’, with the follow-up ‘Do The right Thing’ in circulation at the time of going to press.

Looking ahead, PDO’s corruption-busters know they have more to do before the risks of ethical breaches can be minimised. However, nobody is under any illusions that there won’t still be the odd bad apple in the barrel – nothing is ever 100% certain when people are involved. Such miscreants will simply be an ever-smaller, and ever more-scorned, minority. And that’s the way it should be.

11

Global anti-corruption initiatives

As part of the global fight against corruption, a number of international compliance organisations have been formed that encourage public and private sector institutions to adopt more ethical and sustainable practices.

Probably the best known is the United Nations Global Compact. It was founded in 2000 with nine principles centred around human rights, labour standards and environmental protection; withand a 10th, directly relating to anti-corruption, subsequently added in 2004. This tenth principle states that ‘businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery’.

Another well-known corruption-fighting organisation is Transparency International, which publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index that provides a comparative listing of corruption worldwide. It is credited with putting corruption on the agenda at global institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, both of which now see corruption as one of the main obstacles to international development.

The third major anti-corruption organisation is the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI). This body was founded by a group of company CEOs in 2004 and today it falls under the auspices of the World Economic Forum. Originally focused on improving compliance practices, PACI has been devoting increasing efforts to foster a high-level dialogue between business and governments on key corruption challenges. It counts Royal Dutch Shell, PDO’s major corporate shareholder, among its members.

Say NOto Bribery

Stand up against corruption.MAKE PDO PROUD.

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Don’t get hooked

Say NO toCorruptionDon’t get hooked

Say NO to bribes. Make PDO proud.

Poster valid till 31 August, 2011

Omani jobs for skilled Omani workersPDO’s yearly operating budget runs into billions of dollars, but until recently just 18% of that money stayed inside Oman, with the rest being paid out for imported goods, services and manpower.

Now the Company is aiming to increase that ‘Made in Oman’ element to 32%, as part of its commitment to the national In-Country Value initiative (see almanhal issue 1, 2014 for more details).

A key component of this new ambition will be made up by human capital, replacing expat workers with Omanis as part of the process known nationally as ‘Omanisation’. However, the vast proportion of oil and gas roles are skilled ones, and this threw up a problem: how to get contractors to employ Omanis when too few were available who possessed the required knowledge and skills?

The answer is a ground-breaking initiative that has brought together government, PDO and key contractors into a unique, mutually beneficial partnership. Here’s how it works…

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Matching Omanis with opportunitiesAsk a contractor to employ a greater proportion of skilled Omanis in technical jobs and in the

past the answer would often be “I can’t find any”. That won’t be the case in future, because PDO is now taking responsibility for training Omanis to take on technical roles, provided the contractor commits to employing that person for a period of at least two years after qualification. The prospective recruits are all young men registered as unemployed at the Ministry of Manpower, and for jobs such as pipe fitters, electrical engineers and instrument technicians, school leavers are targeted. It’s a win/win for PDO and the contractors, helping the former to fulfil its pledge to create more opportunities for Omanis, while the latter only have to cover the trainee’s PASI social insurance, since the training costs are underwritten by PDO. Better still, while undergoing training the individual still counts towards the contractor’s Omanisation target.

Training the new recruitsOnce PDO has reviewed the list of potential recruits forwarded by the Ministry of

Manpower, the likely candidates’ details are sent to one of the external training providers who have been tasked with running the programme. There are four such companies now involved, with a new supplier added recently to cope with the burgeoning success of the initiative. Each candidate undergoes a placement test and face-to-face session with the contractor, after which the successful ones will sign a ‘training for employment’ contract. The training itself begins with a foundation course that covers subjects such as English and maths, behaviour and work ethics, which is followed by the technical elements. This year health, safety and environment (HSE) training will also be factored in. When the training is successfully completed, the candidate goes straight to his or her job with the contractor.

13

Graduates can also get involvedGraduates seeking work (and therefore registered with the Ministry of Manpower)

are also able to join this initiative. Calling upon the knowledge of its own subject matter experts, PDO has devised a special, two-year accelerated experience programme in areas such as health and safety and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) which contractors have previously cited as lacking in suitable Omani candidates. Unlike the technical programme for school leavers, here the graduates sit with their employer from day one, acquiring on-the-job experience alongside an intensive training programme that provides successful participants with an internationally recognised accreditation, for example, the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) qualification for health and safety.

6G welding – a new level of ambitionPerhaps the most ambitious of all the elements to this programme is the plan to train

Omanis in the extremely complex and prestigious job of 6G welder. This particular skill is the toughest to learn in the welding trade, covering every difficult position a welder might encounter. PDO has some massive projects on the horizon, including the next phase of its Harweel enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project and a ground-breaking new initiative at Yibal Khuff (to be featured in a future issue). These projects require large numbers of 6G welders, so during the next two years some 400 Omanis are going to be trained to meet this manpower need, the first time a top-level vocational training programme of this scale has been attempted in the Middle East region. The first batch of 200 trainees are already learning the trade, and training is said to be going well.

Upskilling, reskilling, dual skilling…In the past, one of the biggest issues with Omanisation at contractor level has been a

tendency to meet the benchmarks through giving Omanis low- and unskilled roles, such as drivers or helpers. PDO feels these employees should have a chance to better themselves, so as part of this initiative it is looking to upskill, reskill or dual skill them so they can take on better paid, more senior positions as technicians. New classrooms and training centres are currently being built in the Interior, allowing unskilled workers to fit their training around their ‘day jobs’. Already, contractors have indicated that they’ll put some 1,800 Omani employees forward for this programme, a stunning success that will not just provide a new wave of skilled Omani workers but will also create space for further unskilled recruits as people move up and out of their current jobs.

Looking to the future; and how to get involvedSo far this broad-based programme has created more than 10,000 opportunities for

Omanis since it got underway in 2011. Last year alone there were more than 3,500 jobs or opportunities to train and upskill provided. For the future, a new initiative focused on drilling is currently being created, to help more Omanis get into this booming discipline within the oil and gas industry. The Super Local Community Contractors (SLCCs) are also getting more involved, putting their candidates forward to join the training programmes. If you are an unemployed school leaver or graduate and want to get involved yourself, make sure you are registered with the Ministry of Manpower and then contact the programme team at: [email protected]

14

A day in the life of...Hussain al Noumani,Well and Reservoir Management Planner

In a break from the normal routine, we’re changing this feature to reflect the ‘career in the life’ of Hussain al Noumani, to help underline the breadth of career options available to those joining PDO. Hussain has chosen his own path, with suitable guidance from managers and mentors along the way, and has most recently taken on the job of Well and Reservoir Management Planner for the Company’s fields in the north of Oman. You can find out more about this specific role by referring back to al manhal’s first issue of 2010.

1513 years ago… Cutting my teeth in the drilling discipline

PDO began supporting my personal development as soon as I joined the Company back in 2001. I received a scholarship to finish off my degree in chemical engineering, which I did at the University of Manchester in the UK. When I returned to Oman I started work in production chemistry, a job that took me out into the field to work at the rig-site. I really enjoyed the drilling part of the process and I took it upon myself to gain the ‘Round One’ drilling qualification, again with PDO’s support. In the end I moved full time into the drilling department, took and passed my ‘Round Two’ qualification and that qualified me to be the chief PDO representative on the rig, with sole responsibility for monitoring drilling activities on behalf of the Company.

Five years ago… A masters scholarship and then a move into petroleum engineering

Always keen to better myself, I applied for a Fulbright Scholarship to take my Masters degree in the United States. In 2007, I was notified that I’d been accepted for the scholarship, so in August that year I left for Texas A&M University, where I spent the next two years undertaking a Masters in Petroleum Engineering. PDO agreed to let me have a paid sabbatical during this period, provided I committed to coming back and working for the Company for a further three years. That suited me fine! When I came back to Oman with the Masters in my pocket I continued working in drilling for a while, then in 2011 I switched to the Petroleum Engineering department, working as a Production Technologist focused on a group of fields located in the south of Oman.

Two years ago…Supporting PDO’s commitment to excellence

Aside from my ‘day job’, for the past two years I’ve also had the role of Scheme Manager for the Chairman’s Awards for Excellence (CAE), which is PDO’s way of honouring the Company’s best and most innovative teams. I also have responsibility for DALTA, which is short for the Dr Abdulla al Lamki Award for Developing Talent and is given each year to the person who has done most to foster staff development within the Company. Both these initiatives are very rewarding to be part of and have done great things for my internal profile within PDO, particularly among the Company’s management. I am grateful to my boss for supporting me in taking them on. I will probably look to work through one more awards cycle, then pass the role on to someone else who can make it their own and use it as part of their career progression. In my spare time I do voice-overs for PDO communication videos and radio commercials on Oman FM. I have previously worked as a news anchor for Oman TV from 2007 till 2012. I also continue to provide voice-overs for Oman TV documentaries.

Today… Getting my feet under the table in my new job!

Now I can bring the story right up to date, because I’ve just taken on my latest role within PDO, that of Well & Reservoir Management Planner covering the north of the Company’s concession area. This is still quite a new position in PDO – I’m just the second person to fill these shoes – and the prospect fills me with equal measures of excitement and apprehension! In a nutshell, the Well & Reservoir Management Planner role is to look at all the Oil North Directorate’s activities from a bird’s eye view, deciding where best to allocate resources so we can maximise production. It’s a move away from a pure technical role into one more about management, but at this stage of my career I was ready for a new challenge. I have a mentor within the Company, someone I picked myself because we have such a good relationship, and he has been very supportive to me in making my mind up about my next career move. My message to any students considering a career at PDO is to come in with your eyes open to the huge possibilities you’ll find in front of you, and not to get fixated on one career path at the expense of others. There’s always room to try something new, provided you show your enthusiasm and aptitude!

Oman is not just a jewel of the Gulf region; it’s also one of the most beautiful countries in the world. For our next few issues, we’ve teamed up with PDO employee and keen photographer Mohammed al Mahrazy to bring that beauty to life on our centre pages.

Some of the natural wonders we profile will be very familiar to you; others less so. All should be seen in person, but please respect these national treasures and ensure that others can enjoy them by taking nothing away and leaving no trace of your visit.

Our first spotlight falls on Wadi Shab: one of Oman’s genuine, must-see beauty spots. It is located some 40 kilometres southeast of Dibab, just off the main highway close to Tiwi village. From Muscat the drive is around an hour and a half. After parking, you take a small ferryboat across the big water pool at the entrance, which costs 1 rial per person (kids go free).

Once at the wadi, you will find gorgeous blue pools, soaring cliff faces and lush greenery belying its desert location. Visitors of all ages will love to have a swim in the refreshing water, while it’s also possible to dive from the cliffs, although only if you know where the deeper pools are!

Those who’ve been say the further into Wadi Shab you venture, the more amazing it becomes. And perhaps the highlight is a ‘secret’ cave – only accessible from the water and with a near-invisible entrance – that once inside opens up to reveal a waterfall lit by beams of sunlight flooding through gaps in the cave ceiling.

A truly magical place.

Enchanting Oman:Wadi Shab

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