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Adnoc mulls expanding workforce
by 30% in 
five years

ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or Adnoc, will expand its workforce by 30 per cent in the five years to manage the growth and expansion to its output, a top 
official said.

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Adnoc group is expanding its production by carrying out expansion to its existing facilities, making modifications and building new ones, said Ali Rashid Al Jarwan, chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company or ADMA-OPCO, while speaking to reporters, on the sidelines of the 27^th Meeting of the GCC National oil Companies, being attended by top engineers from production and maintenance departments are discussing issues related to shortage of skilled human resources.

Al Jarwan said that the three-day conference will discuss challenges relating to human capital being faced by the national oil companies in the region, as lots of new projects are being setup, modifications are being carried out on existing ones apart from maintenance work is done on regular basis requiring highly
 skilled people.

He said the idea behind the meeting of maintenance engineers from the state run oil and gas companies was to benchmark the best practice in the area of human resources as lots of developments 
are taking place. “Adnoc is focusing on growth by setting up new projects and modification of its existing facilities on both offshore and onshore oil and gas fields, which require lot of workforce,” he said. The conference will discuss new ideas in managing the ground realities in this 
regard, he said.

The ADMA-OPCO Chief Executive Officer said that in order to meeting the future growth needs workforce have to be prepared so that they are competent to run the business. The experts will exchange information and knowledge on their experiences on the improving the skill sets of the employees in order fill the gaps.

ADNOC, he said has over 25,000 strong workforce in its 15-companies that is running the oil and gas industry in the country.” The group has an attrition rate of up to five per cent per annum as employees attain their retirement age,” he said.

He said “Our industry (oil and gas) is growing and global so the support from our vendors is very important,” in meeting this challenge.

Al Jarwan said that Adnoc is paying due focus to the challenges of the development of skilled human resources so that they can run the fast expanding industry 
in the future.

Talking about role of women in the hydrocarbon industry, the CEO said that the number of young Engineering graduates has risen in the recent years, and has gone up as high as 70 per cent, showing grate interest shown by them into the oil industry. New projects mean diversified workforce, he said.

Adnoc’s Deputy Director for Human Resources, Badria Khalfan said that of the total workforce of the oil and gas group of companies, 50 per cent are UAE nationals and the percentage will grow even higher to 75 per cent in the four years. But, she said that in highly technical jobs there is shortage of people, as massive expansion into the existing hydrocarbon infrastructure is taking place.


haseeb@khaleejtimes.com