Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has signed eight new ICV contracts worth around $61 million with Omani companies to provide important manufacture, maintenance, manpower and transport services.

The deals were signed by PDO Managing Director Raoul Restucci and senior executives of the community-owned firms at an official ceremony at the Company’s Knowledge World building.

Three of the companies are Omani manufacturing start-ups and were established in line with PDO’s drive to implement the In-Country Value (ICV) Blueprint Strategy for the oil and gas industry announced in 2013 to create more job, training, commercial and investment opportunities for national businesses.

Restucci said: “These contracts are further testament to our strong and abiding commitment to ICV to spread the wealth of our industry throughout the wider community.

“The investment will support and create jobs for Omanis and help to strengthen local supply chains in terms of the provision of vital services for our operations.

“Each of the signatory companies has demonstrated their capability and capacity to deliver work safely, professionally and efficiently.”

Three five-year contracts were signed with Oman Flanges Production, Solid Earth and Gulf Fasteners, which are newly established small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in Nizwa, Barka and Rusail respectively.

The agreements will be for the production of flanges, which connect pipes, valves, pumps and other equipment to form a piping system, and fasteners, such as nuts and bolts, and should create more than 50 job opportunities.

Such moves to localise manufacturing are fundamental to the implementation of the ICV Blueprint document unveiled by the Ministry of Oil and Gas for operators almost six years ago.

Another contract – which will run to the end of May 2023 – is with Local Community Contractor (LCC) Sahwat Haima for the provision of personnel commuting services to and from accommodation camps, local villages and Marmul Airport in South Oman.

It represents a continuation of PDO’s commuter bus scheme which was launched in the summer of 2013 to reduce the rate of road accidents by cutting the number of staff and contractors using private vehicles to get to and from work.

The service has expanded steadily and now covers 28 hubs and 65 villages. Since it started, it has carried 536,702 passengers, including 175,095 PDO staff, and an average of 12,574 passengers a month now use it.

PDO also signed two contracts – which will run to the end of November 2020 – with LCCs Sana’a Desert Trading and Murtafaat Shaleem Trading & Contracting to provide manpower.

These deals will create more than 200 jobs for Omanis in the North and South of PDO’s concession area to work as carpenters, dispatchers, warehouse staff and general helpers.

Two other deals were sealed with Super Local Community Contractor (SLCC) Al Shawamikh Oil Services and LCC Al Ghalbi International Engineering and Contracting to carry out maintenance work on the Main Oil Line in Central and North Oman respectively.

The agreements –which will run until November 2022 – will cover protective coating work on key pipeline sections to prevent corrosion.

Restucci said: “Over the years, Omani-owned companies and SMEs have become bedrocks of the Omani oil and gas industry, returning significant dividends to investors in the communities where they are based.

“Many are now going from strength to strength, executing ever more complex and diversified work successfully in an increasingly competitive market.

“PDO is proud of the role we have played in fostering their development and we will continue to support them to underpin the sustainable growth of the Sultanate’s economy.”