Sunday 08 / September / 2024
Muscat: Despite the current tough times, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is continuing to target the creation of 7,000 new jobs for Omanis in the industry this year, Raul Restucci, managing director of PDO told the Times of Oman (TOO) on the sidelines of a graduation ceremony held on Thursday.
“It’s a tougher environment, it’s an environment of cost-cutting, constraining what we can do to survive this phase, but we remain committed to this programme,” he said.
Abdul Amir Al Ajmi, external affairs and value creation director at PDO, said the company had delivered 7,200 jobs, training and re-deployment opportunities with its contracting community last year.
“I am pleased to emphasise that last year PDO was able to achieve performance that exceeded targets in all areas of its business, including production, safety and of course in securing employment and training opportunities for job seekers,” he stated.
Restucci said job opportunities will be in a range of levels, including scaffolding, electricians, mechanics, assistant drillers, but also inspectors, surveyors and designers.
He further said the training programme is designed to let young Omanis gain confidence in the private sector and help develop themselves.
“Our key goal is to address work ethics, so they learn a line of sight, what are the opportunities?” he asked.
Restucci noted that there are lot of opportunities for Omanis to progress in their career.
“No matter how humble you start, there’s a lot of opportunity in the industry if you dedicate yourself. Whether you decide to stay in the sector or set up you own welding shop, it doesn’t matter. The opportunity is very significant,” he added.
Restucci told TOO that the current Omanisation rate within PDO is 76 per cent.
“At PDO, we’re at 76 per cent, and partly because every time we grow, other companies take our talent. If you look at the other operators, many of those leaders are ex-PDO. A lot of the ministers, undersecretaries, business leaders across Oman are ex-PDO. So we continue to be a talent development university that delivers quality talent,” he said.
On Thursday, 71 young Omani jobseekers had graduated as assistant drillers with PDO contractors, in a ceremony held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Muscat, under the auspices of Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas.
The graduates completed a 15-month PDO-funded vocational training course and are now certified to work as assistant drillers, both in the PDO concession area and beyond, supervising the work done on the drilling floor and all other tasks in connection with well drilling operations.
After the graduation ceremony, the proud Omani graduates told TOO that they were very happy to have had this training opportunity.
Essa Mohammed, 24, said he was happy to have completed the programme.
“We did face a lot of challenges, but thank God, we managed to succeed. We have learnt a lot in this programme, from working as a roustabout, floor man, tester and finally to work as an assistant driller. I feel very happy,” he said.
Balarab Saif Al Batashi, 24, said this is a first step in his career as a future driller.
“Today is a day of harvest, we have all graduated! We thank God for this. I enjoyed the programme. After passing this stage, I feel very proud. I want to reach the level of driller in the future,” he said.
Said Al Harassi, 25, said he wants to be a rig manager in the future.
“I’m very proud of myself and of PDO, which gave us the chance to do this training. We learned so much in this programme. I would also like to thank the Dalma Training Institute for helping us and all the rigs to which we were invited,” he said.
According to Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas, thousands of expat jobs in the oil and gas sector can be Omanised.
“We provide the companies with trained and certified technicians and this is one side of government’s programme,” he said while addressing the media on the sidelines of the graduation ceremony.
“Our aim is to develop and train Omanis not only in a theoretical manner, but also in practical terms,” he continued.
Speaking about the other profession that the ministry looks to Omanise, Al Aufi said “We started with the welding profession, now we are looking into professions, such as assistant drillers, pipefitters, electrical and instrumental technicians etc.”
He also advised the Omani workforce to take these opportunities seriously.
“Opportunities will not repeat themselves and there is a lot of demand so we will take whoever is interested in developing themselves,” Al Aufi asserted.
