Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)expects to add about 7,500 new jobs by 2015, as the group ramps up its capacity to produce oil, gas and petrochemicals.
At present about 25,000 people work for the ADNOC group, which includes a holding company owned by the Government and 14 units that operate in all sectors of the oil and gas industry. These range from resources extraction and oilfield services to processing, refining and chemicals production, to the marketing and distribution of end products including fuels, plastics and fertilisers.
"For ADNOC across the board, we're talking about 30 per cent growth in production and workforce in the next five years," Ali al Jarwan, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Company for Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco), said yesterday at a meeting of GCC national oil companies in Abu Dhabi.
The new employees would be overwhelmingly Emirati, recruited mainly from the ADNOC Technical Institute and the Petroleum Institute. Respectively, these are a vocational college and a specialised university that ADNOC founded with industry and academic partners to meet its future requirements for technical staff.
Badria Khalfan, the ADNOC deputy director for human resources and administration, said the company set a target of increasing its percentage of Emirati employees to 75 per cent by 2014 from its present level of just over 50 per cent.
To attain that goal while boosting its total workforce to about 32,500 by the end of 2014, the company would need to add almost 12,000 new Emirati employees, nearly doubling its current number, and replace thousands of its current expatriate workers with UAE nationals.
Ms Khalfan said about 4 per cent of ADNOC employees leave the company each year for various reasons, including retirement. If that stays constant over the next five years, ADNOC would need to hire more than 6,000 new employees just to replace those leaving. All told, it could have nearly 14,000 staff openings between now and the end of 2015, or as many as 2,800 positions per year.
ADNOC has also announced plans to increase its total oil production capacity to 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2018 from about 2.8 million bpd at present, at the same time also raising its gas output.
As part of that plan, Adma-Opco, an offshore oil consortium 60 per cent owned by ADNOC and 40 per cent by international oil companies, is seeking to develop two untapped oilfields, Umm al Lulu and Nasr, off Abu Dhabi's Gulf coast. It expects to start pumping 22,500 bpd from each in 2015.
Over the longer term, it is seeking to add 300,000 bpd of new oil output from at least four offshore deposits that are smaller than its current mainstays, the giant Umm Shaif and Lower Zakum oilfields.
Adma-Opco is also nearing the completion of a three-year project to boost output from Umm Shaif, as it embarks on a five-year scheme to do likewise at Lower Zakum.
Each of ADNOC's other two main oil production joint ventures, one pumping oil from Abu Dhabi's onshore fields and the other from its giant Upper Zakum offshore oil deposit, also have expansion programmes of comparable scope. The companies have already awarded contracts worth tens of billions of dirhams to construction and oil services firms to start implementing major projects.
The ADNOC chemicals joint venture Borouge and its fertiliser unit Fertil are also in the middle of major expansions, despite glutted markets for their products.
"We in ADNOC have not designed our strategy based on today's environment. We have a very clear long-term strategy and we always focus on implementing those strategies," Yousef Omair bin Yousef, the ADNOC chief executive, said this month.
Ms Khalfan said yesterday ADNOC's hiring plans were in keeping with the long-term economic development policy of the Abu Dhabi Government.
"Having a skilled workforce is at the top of our leaders' agenda in Abu Dhabi and is part of Vision 2030," she said, referring to the Government's development master plan.
[ tcarlisle@thenational.ae ]
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
Teaching your child to save
Pre-school (three - five years)
You can’t yet talk about investing or borrowing, but introduce a “classic” money bank and start putting gifts and allowances away. When the child wants a specific toy, have them save for it and help them track their progress.
Early childhood (six - eight years)
Replace the money bank with three jars labelled ‘saving’, ‘spending’ and ‘sharing’. Have the child divide their allowance into the three jars each week and explain their choices in splitting their pocket money. A guide could be 25 per cent saving, 50 per cent spending, 25 per cent for charity and gift-giving.
Middle childhood (nine - 11 years)
Open a bank savings account and help your child establish a budget and set a savings goal. Introduce the notion of ‘paying yourself first’ by putting away savings as soon as your allowance is paid.
Young teens (12 - 14 years)
Change your child’s allowance from weekly to monthly and help them pinpoint long-range goals such as a trip, so they can start longer-term saving and find new ways to increase their saving.
Teenage (15 - 18 years)
Discuss mutual expectations about university costs and identify what they can help fund and set goals. Don’t pay for everything, so they can experience the pride of contributing.
Young adulthood (19 - 22 years)
Discuss post-graduation plans and future life goals, quantify expenses such as first apartment, work wardrobe, holidays and help them continue to save towards these goals.
* JP Morgan Private Bank
Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
Captain Marvel
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
‘FSO Safer’ - a ticking bomb
The Safer has been moored off the Yemeni coast of Ras Issa since 1988.
The Houthis have been blockading UN efforts to inspect and maintain the vessel since 2015, when the war between the group and the Yemen government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition began.
Since then, a handful of people acting as a skeleton crew, have performed rudimentary maintenance work to keep the Safer intact.
The Safer is connected to a pipeline from the oil-rich city of Marib, and was once a hub for the storage and export of crude oil.
The Safer’s environmental and humanitarian impact may extend well beyond Yemen, experts believe, into the surrounding waters of Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Eritrea, impacting marine-life and vital infrastructure like desalination plans and fishing ports.
'Gold'
Director:Anthony Hayes
Stars:Zaf Efron, Anthony Hayes
Rating:3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Olive Gaea
Started: 2021
Co-founders: Vivek Tripathi, Jessica Scopacasa
Based: Dubai
Licensed by: Dubai World Trade Centre
Industry: Climate-Tech, Sustainability
Funding: $1.1 million
Investors: Cornerstone Venture Partners and angel investors
Number of employees: 8
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The Kingfisher Secret
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It’ll be summer in the city as car show tries to move with the times
If 2008 was the year that rocked Detroit, 2019 will be when Motor City gives its annual car extravaganza a revamp that aims to move with the times.
A major change is that this week's North American International Auto Show will be the last to be held in January, after which the event will switch to June.
The new date, organisers said, will allow exhibitors to move vehicles and activities outside the Cobo Center's halls and into other city venues, unencumbered by cold January weather, exemplified this week by snow and ice.
In a market in which trends can easily be outpaced beyond one event, the need to do so was probably exacerbated by the decision of Germany's big three carmakers – BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi – to skip the auto show this year.
The show has long allowed car enthusiasts to sit behind the wheel of the latest models at the start of the calendar year but a more fluid car market in an online world has made sales less seasonal.
Similarly, everyday technology seems to be catching up on those whose job it is to get behind microphones and try and tempt the visiting public into making a purchase.
Although sparkly announcers clasp iPads and outline the technical gadgetry hidden beneath bonnets, people's obsession with their own smartphones often appeared to offer a more tempting distraction.
“It's maddening,” said one such worker at Nissan's stand.
The absence of some pizzazz, as well as top marques, was also noted by patrons.
“It looks like there are a few less cars this year,” one annual attendee said of this year's exhibitors.
“I can't help but think it's easier to stay at home than to brave the snow and come here.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
Scoreline:
Barcelona 2
Suarez 85', Messi 86'
Atletico Madrid 0
Red card: Diego Costa 28' (Atletico)
