Yousuf al Ojaili, President of BP Oman announced that the total gas produced from Khazzan will eventually deliver around 40 per cent of Oman’s daily domestic gas supply, making a significant contribution to ensure stable supplies from domestic sources. He was making a presentation enunciating the performance of BP Oman at the Ministry of Oil & Gas’ annual media briefing held in Muscat recently.

In Phase I of the project, Khazzan will deliver first gas towards the end of 2017 and will produce 1 billion cubic feet of gas and 25,000 barrels of condensate each day. In Phase II of the project, additional wells will be drilled and production is estimated to rise to 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day by 2020. The past two years have seen Khazzan make substantial progress towards First Gas. A workforce of up to 10,000 is in place at peak development and the project so far boasts an outstanding record of safety. “With $16bn invested and the equivalent of a small town being built in the remote desert, this truly is a mega-project and is a real logistical and technical challenge. But one that BP is ideally placed to meet,” assured Yousuf al Ojaili.

Phase 1 of the project is over 60 per cent complete as of February 2016. 10 drilling rigs have been completed and put into the field and they will be responsible for the drilling of the first 54 wells required to deliver First Gas in 2017. 20 development wells have also been drilled and initial gathering systems are in place. Safety is the top priority at Khazzan with over 20 million man hours worked and 27 million kilometres driven in 2015. BP Oman works very closely with its main contractors to ensure that their workforces understand and engage in safe working practices.

BP Oman has also been able to nurture and develop skills in the Omani workforce and provide around 11,000 jobs in the development stage in addition to contracts to Omani businesses through the Khazzan project. “We are committed to developing young Omanis through our graduate and social investment programmes. It is my view that the significance of this project cannot be overstated,” added the President of BP Oman.

The company is also committed to attracting, developing and retaining the best local talent by creating exciting career opportunities and offering world-class training and development for all its employees. 72 per cent of BP Oman employees and about 50 per cent of the leadership team is now made up of Omanis. “Our aim is to build a sustainable long-term organisation and develop technical expertise. Once we are in the production phase we expect the Omanisation rate to be around 90 per cent,” said Yousuf al Ojaili.

There are two specific BP Oman graduate training programmes for young Omanis:

• The Graduate Challenge recruitment programme which was introduced in 2010 – to date over 45 Omani graduates have been recruited from leading colleges in Oman and from among Omani students who have studied overseas. The aim is to train them to managerial level, focusing on their field of study to gain hands-on work experience while at the same time building skills in other disciplines.

• The Technician Development Programme was launched in 2012 – providing multi-year training and learning opportunities for Omani graduates from top technical colleges on Production, Instrumentation, Electrical and Mechanical areas. The full complement of 86 technicians has been recruited and will be equipped with the skills and expertise to work on the Khazzan project once operation starts.

In late 2015, BP Oman collaborated with Oman LNG and OOCEP to provide on-the-ground training at their facilities as part of the training programme and as a way to promote In Country Value.

BP Oman also runs a Social Investment Programme, launched in 2014, with the aim to support Oman’s national priorities. The programme focuses on Education, Enterprise Development and Energy sustainability and has benefitted over 4000 people since its inception.