Wednesday 29 / January / 2025
Muscat: Demonstrating robust efforts and drive towards enhancing In-Country Value (ICV), four major oil and gas entities in the Sultanate have joined hands to boost the level of Omanisation in key turnaround and maintenance work on their facilities.
Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), Oman LNG, OQ and Opal signed a remote agreement on turnaround and maintenance activities to build on an earlier signed Memorandum of Understating (MoU) between the same parties to explore the local market needs of skilled workforce and the feasibility of this project.
The agreement was signed by Raoul Restucci, PDO Managing Director, Hamed Al Naamany, CEO of Oman LNG, and Ahmed Al Azkawi, OQ Head of Procurement. This signing comes as an initiative to maximise ICV in turnaround activities which are usually dominated by short term expatriate workforce.
The three oil and gas operators, which undertake various maintenance work throughout the year, foresee this as a significant milestone in providing the necessary impetus to the sector’s on-demand local skilled capabilities which would ultimately replace the short term expatriate workforce.
The operators, in collaboration with Opal, established an integrated turnaround and maintenance execution programme which aims to develop and nurture local capabilities in turnaround execution, as well as upskill the Omani workforce and create jobs for the local Omani cadre in this field.
A turnaround is the shutdown of a plant for a period of time for maintenance, refitting and inspection purposes before it is brought back into operation. Turnarounds are important to ensure the safety and efficiency of operation installation. However, due to the irregular nature of the requests for such services, companies in Oman currently carry them out through the support of local, regional or international contractors. At present, the majority of this contractor workforce consists of skilled expatriates with Omanis only participating in semi-skilled or unskilled roles.
Commenting on the announcement, Raoul Restucci, Managing Director, Petroleum Development Oman, said, “We are delighted to sign this agreement with key partners to work on a project that will deliver key and fundamental skills and services in Oman by Omanis. The fluctuating nature of the workforce demand in turnaround activities has always been a significant challenge in localising these positions. It can only be accomplished when major operators collaborate to align their shutdown and maintenance activities to create sustainable demand and consistent work opportunities.”
Speaking on the agreement, Hamed Al Naamany, CEO of Oman LNG commented, “Our objective and commitment is to have sustainable Turnaround capabilities and this can be achieved by developing Omanis workforce to take active roles in potential turnaround opportunities within our facilities and beyond our borders. We continue our dedication and commitment towards ICV and mainly developing Omanis within the oil and gas sector.”
Abdulrahman Al Yahyaei, Opal CEO said, “Indeed, this is a milestone achievement. Operators along with OPAL will be working together to enhance the ICV. This will be achieved by developing an independent Omani contracting company to run the turnaround activities, which was previously done by expats working on short-term contracts. The project aims to train and develop Omani cadres to carry out these activities and provide sustainable jobs for citizens. The project will also help in terms of saving cost which can be used to develop local products and services.”
