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Adding in-country value (ICV) and providing Omanis with more training and experience are important areas for operators to serve the future needs of the Sultanate.

Steve Kelly

President & General Manager, Occidental of Oman

Our Omanization strategy is nation-wide, though we always bear in mind that we are active in a particular area of Oman that was not well developed. Providing additional attention to the locals in the areas that we operate in is an important part of our strategy. This meant additional education to establish a basic standard before they could join our operator technician training program. It has been extremely successful, and many people who went through this program are now team leaders and supervisors in the field. We have started the process of training and employing around 100 Omani job seekers who are based near our block 9 and 27 concessions areas. In 2017, we also started a vocational training program for electricians and welders, and there will be 160 training opportunities around Muscat. Once people are on board, we also focus on leadership development to make sure we focus on quality and not just quantity. We want to bring people to leadership positions; 84% of all supervisory positions are held by Omanis.

Aflah Al Hadhrami

Middle East Director, Upstream PSCM, BP

BP’s philosophy is to add value to wherever it works and to do so both safely and reliably. The joint venture operator for Khazzan is Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production, which holds a 40% interest. BP Oman partners with local companies to upskill talent and experience in technical disciplines, support leadership skill development in communities near Block 61 and in Muscat via social community relationships, and provide voluntary support networks with Sultan Qaboos University students for project development and knowledge sharing. We want to support the government’s drive to focus heavily on ICV and enhance local content. We do not do this in a traditional way, by just dealing with local companies, and moving on. We take our relationship way beyond; there are contractors who provide niche services and high-risk services, and we work closely with them to ensure their technical skills are upgraded, so they can compete with other multinationals. We spend a large amount of money in the local market.

Ray Richardson

Senior Vice President & Oman Country Manager, Ray Richardson

Though we have been present in Oman since 1988, ICV is a fairly recent concept in Oman and has been a central focus of the government since 2011, including a particularly high focus on Omanization. The Petrofac approach to establishing local supply chains and promoting local content means we have built up a wealth of experience and strong track record in delivering in ICV in many of the countries we operate, so it was not a foreign concept to us. Our recent Oman projects have generated upward of USD1.5 billion in ICV to date, and our new projects will add significantly to this achievement, of which we are proud. The development of more SMEs, alongside the advent of community contractors, also feeds into the ICV market development. Multi-billion dollar projects such as BP’s Khazzan CPF and Orpic’s Suhar Refinery Improvement Project have enabled us to engage with many SMEs. We now have a broad spectrum of engaged suppliers we know well and can work effectively with.

Walter Simpson

Managing Director, CC Energy Development (CCED)

We have done a great deal of work in terms of partnering with Omani companies as part of our objective of being a valued partner of Oman. We have been working with local contractors and are keen to help them develop their skill sets, because that allows them to continue effective partnerships with us. We currently have 80% Omanis in the organization. We put the applicants through a rigorous screening process and finally hired the most impressive 16, who represent part of the cadre of extremely capable young people in Oman. The Omanization targets are about making excellent business decisions, as well as training and developing these individuals. We want to find and develop local talent that is competitive on the international market, because having talented people drives us to hire Omanis. We also have a large pool of roles that require fewer skills, and we have not had many problems employing Omanis in these positions. We are truly a multinational organization, and this diversity is important in terms of mindset.

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