The agreements will run for three years and also pave the way for PDO staff to enrol on BSc, MSc and PhD degrees and other courses at the universities. This is a reciprocal relationship which represents a win-win for PDO and the universities, and the Sultanate more generally. We have further built on this approach by working with the Ministry of Oil and Gas and The Research Council on a protocol to align the government, academia and industry more closely so we are all pulling in the same direction, and have even launched an online system called Ejaad, where we can post our complex challenges and researchers can access them electronically to propose alternative solutions.

How else does PDO help external stakeholders?

We are constantly in touch with external shareholders, to gain their valuable feedback while also extending our best practice where it help them progress. In a nutshell, we only succeed if the communities in which we operate succeed.

We regularly host or participate in visits, meetings and workshops to explain what we are doing and proffer advice and assistance. One area is our Lean business efficiency programme which has delivered $1.2 billion in cost avoidance and control and generating added value by stripping out waste and streamlining our work processes.

PDO is now very much viewed as a centre of Lean excellence and we are spreading our message to a wide variety of organisations – including government ministries and NGOs with seminars, awareness sessions and actual projects – to help them embark on their continuous improvement journeys. PDO is a role model in many areas – workplace diversity and inclusion, technological innovation and personal and process safety, for example – and we are now building our offering in energy and water management, which could be adopted or followed by other organisations as energy efficiency and conservation become ever more important in the face of mounting climate change realities.

For example, we are currently installing solar energy panels on the rooftops in our parking area in Mina Al Fahal. This single environmentally friendly move will save more than 3.1 million cubic metres of gas a year, enough to provide electricity for almost 1,000 homes. It will also cut carbon dioxide emissions by 6,662 tonnes annually, the equivalent of taking more than 1,400 cars off the road or planting almost 173,000 trees.

The 5.92 MWp (megawatt peak) solar project will generate 9.480 million KWh (electrical units) per year. The generated power will be connected to three of the main office buildings at our Mina Al Fahal headquarters. Many organisations are now studying and or utilising our expertise to install similar energy saving facilities in their assets. That’s what we call value creation, not just for ourselves but for the entire nation and environment.

How will PDO’s value creation policy and programmes change with the Company’s move towards becoming a fully fledged energy company?

Although oil and gas will remain core to our activities for a number of years, we are beginning the transition to becoming a fully fledged energy company with a focus on renewables, especially solar where this is a fantastic opportunity for PDO and Oman.

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