Petroleum Development Oman today (14 May) celebrated two major Company anniversaries during its annual PDO Day event held at its Muscat headquarters.
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2017 is a landmark year for Oman’s largest Oil & Gas producer in that it marks the 50th anniversary of the first export of Omani oil and the 80th anniversary of the Company’s foundation.
Sunday’s event was held under the auspices of His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy, Minister of Oil and Gas and Chairman of the PDO Board. It was attended by HE Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, Undersecretary of Minister of Oil & Gas, PDO Shareholders and Board members who were joined by hundreds of staff at the Mina Al Fahal offices.
“PDO has a long and very proud history and has played a central role in the development of the Sultanate over many decades under His Majesty’s wise leadership. PDO Day provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on the origins of the Company and to recognise the contribution of everyone who has helped to make the Company what it is today,” said PDO’s Managing Director Mr Raoul Restucci.
“The day allowed us to mark these special milestones in our Company’s history with our staff and key stakeholders in a celebration that everyone could enjoy. In organising the event we were keen to incorporate a range of activities that highlighted the Company’s achievements, allowed us to celebrate our current successes but also provided the opportunity to look ahead at what the future may hold,” Mr Restucci added.
The PDO Day programme included the premier of a short film highlighting the Company’s development since 1937, the announcement of winners in an Arabic and English language poetry competition and the annual Awards ceremony.
The atrium in the Company’s Bait Mina Al Fahal (BMF) offices was transformed to mark the 50th and 80th anniversaries* including displays and electronic touch screens highlighting the Company’s journey and key events over eight decades. They also showcased current successes and gave a glimpse as to how PDO sees the future.
An area of the hall was also devoted to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and his long association with the Company which includes five visits since 1970. This is the fourth PDO Day with the event held every year in May to mark the anniversary of His Majesty’s visit to the BMF headquarters building on May 12 2013.
In his speech to the assembled audience MD Raoul Restucci praised the Company’s achievements and said it continued to lead the way in many areas including HSE, production, exploration, In-Country Value, Lean continuous business improvement, Well & Reservoir Facilities Management (WRFM), enhanced oil recovery and new technology implementation.
Mr Restucci also devoted part of his speech to the future, emphasing that the Company was actively pursuing a broad Sustainability agenda and needed to embrace new ideas and to explore opportunities across energy and water value chains and beyond. . “We all have a responsibility to ensure that future generations in Oman are celebrating more PDO landmark anniversaries in the coming decades. The key to achieving this is diversification, exploring new ideas and continuing to stay true to our Company vision to be renowned and respected for the excellence of our People and the value that we create for Oman and all our stakeholders.”
Sunday’s event also included PDO’s annual awards ceremony incorporating the 13th Chairman’s Award for Excellence (CAE) and the 5th Dr Abdulla Al Lamki for Developing Talent Award (DALTA). The 2016 winner of the CAE Gold Technical Award was the Shammar play opening in the Lekhwair field in northern Oman which successfully unlocked 40 million barrels of CCR volumes from a high-permeability reservoir. The team overcame many challenges to deliver robust volumes at low cost with accelerated production in record time.
The winning CAE Gold entry in the Non-Technical category was PDO’s Journey Management Control Centre which has played a critical role in improving road safety and is a first in the Sultanate. The Centre tracks over 8,000 PDO and contractor vehicles equipped with In-Vehicle Monitoring Systems (IVMS) and helped to secure a significant reduction in road traffic violations.
Abdulnabi Abdulmajed Al Balushi, Mechanical Lead in PDO’s Engineering function was named as the DALTA winner. He was recognised for his significant contribution in developing and mentoring young graduate engineers.
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Note to editors: Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is the major exploration and production company in the Sultanate. It accounts for about 70% of the country's crude-oil production and nearly all of its natural-gas supply. The Company is owned by the Government of Oman (which has a 60% interest), the Shell Group (which has a 34% interest), Total (which has a 4% interest) and Partex (which has a 2% interest). Gas fields and processing plants are operated by PDO exclusively on behalf of the Government.
*Today’s celebrations were centered around two landmark anniversaries. Eighty years ago on June 24 1937 HM Sultan Said bin Taimur signed with IPC (Iraq Petroleum Company) a 75-year concession for Oman and a separate one for Dhofar. These options were subsequently assigned to Petroleum Development (Oman and Dhofar) to manage.
Following 30 years of surveying, exploration, negotiation, discovering oil in northern Oman and infrastructure building, the Sultanate was ready to make its first oil export in the summer of 1967. On 27 July 1967 Norwegian tanker Mosprince arrived at Saih al Maleh (now called Mina Al Fahal) to transport 543,800 barrels of oil valued at US$ 1.42 a barrel to Japan