PDO supports Omani graduates to work

Muscat: Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is supporting the training of 50 Omani graduates to work as key commissioning staff in the oil and gas sector.
The diploma and bachelor degree holders, aged 18-23, will undergo three years of classroom and field training before being given full-time jobs in the industry on successful completion of the programme.
They have already begun the first six months of their training with Kentz Overseas Company at its new Commissioning Academy in Muscat, in subjects such as electronics, control and automation, mechanics and operations.
The trainees will then be attached to PDO commissioning teams in the interior for 30 months to learn on the job about commissioning activities on mechanical equipment, instrumentation and utility, electrical power and control and automation systems.
On passing the course, the recruits will gain an internationally recognised oil and gas Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation (OPITO) or Edexcel certificate, and take up full-time employment with Kentz (or other oil and gas companies in or outside Oman), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, one of the world’s leading engineering and construction groups.
The trainees, depending on their educational background and technical competence, will then be employed on PDO projects as commissioning supervisors, engineers or technicians overseeing the commissioning activities (dynamic testing) of systems, plants and equipment to ensure they can operate efficiently and safely. They will spend a further two years being shadowed by senior colleagues before being given full responsibility.
Speaking at the official opening of the Kentz facility in Al Qurum, Raoul Restucci, PDO managing director, who was the guest of honour said, “The creation of skilled jobs for Omani job seekers is a key aim for PDO and a national priority for the Sultanate. As with many thousands of others who have been enrolled on our National Objectives programme, this latest batch of trainees will receive a comprehensive theoretical and practical grounding and be certified to international standards so that they can compete with the best in the world. I look forward to seeing them successfully qualify in 2020 so that they can take up rewarding careers in the oil and gas sector.”
PDO signed a five-year commissioning support services framework agreement with Kentz earlier this year. Under its terms, the company will provide a variety of systems completions, commissioning and start-up service activities on a portfolio of oil and gas mega projects within Oman, such as the Rabab Harweel integrated project and the Yibal Khuff project.
The agreement will mean SNC-Lavalin’s specialists will be fully integrated within PDO’s commissioning and start-up management team. Services will include full systems completions, commissioning and start-up management, planning, consultancy, supervision, execution and administration of various oil and gas and related facilities.