KOC organized the forum as part of the 4th Kuwait Oil & Gas Conference
Direct communication with the youth of all backgrounds and age groups is one of the constant and fundamental aspects of KOC's strategy, as the younger generation represents the future with all its challenges and opportunities for success for a society that longs for development and prosperity.
The Company has always been active towards participation for young people in the important events and conferences that it organizes periodically, and is keen to inform those selected to participate on the details of the real daily work in the oil sector to prepare them for working life if they were looking to work in the sector in the future.
As part of the 4th Kuwait Oil and Gas Show & Conference 2019 (KOGS), the Company, in collaboration with the Society of Petroleum Engineers, organized a special forum for a group of students from Kuwait University, The American Middle East University and the Australian College of Kuwait entitled "Emerging Professionals Forum". A number of oil and gas industry experts participated in the forum, which was hosted by Ahmad Al-Jaber Oil & Gas Exhibition.
End of Manual Work
At the outset of the forum, DCEO South &East Kuwait Bader Al-Munaifi welcomed the audience, reviewing some of the transformations that have taken place in the oil and gas industry in the past two decades. “Our industry is not a stagnating one. It is one of constant evolution and exciting change. Every year what I witness in terms of advancements is more and more fascinating and very different to what I had seen in the Colorado School of Mines classrooms during my early petroleum engineering days." He said. He went on to say, “As the demand for energy continues to grow, so does the competition from alternative sources of energy. It is essential that we constantly innovate to allow our industry to flourish while constantly addressing the shifting energy landscape. Long gone are the days of manual labor on the oil field. The industry today is the ideal place to curate the new and exciting disciplines that are emerging and excite our youth such big data analytics, IT & programming that are essential for the sustainability of our industry."
A New Era
Al-Munaifi affirmed that it is becoming essential for oil and gas industry to address the global society's concerns around climate change and the sustainability of the world's growth and consumption patterns. The global energy supply demand equation is changing: future energy consumption scenarios integrate today the growing share of renewables in their model. This only strengthens our need for strong young talents to support us in this transformation to become cleaner and smarter oil & gas producers.
He pointed out that the petroleum sector is entering a new age and we are doing all we can to communicate to our future leaders the exciting possibilities that lie ahead. “Our oil and gas industry is a daily cohesion of a multitude of disciplines from the subsurface engineers to the marketing analysts that are selling our crude. However, this is an industry that is not kind to complacency; many companies have succeeded, and others begin to decline. The key to progress is our ability to adapt new technologies and innovation: from new and cost-efficient exploration and extraction methodologies, carbon reduced energy systems, to automation and artificial intelligence. For our science, technology, mathematicians, finance & accounting, graduates and young professionals, oil and gas is an industry of the future and one that offers rewarding careers with learnings at every stage." He added.
We are pushing the frontier but as I said, our engine needs to be continuously fueled with a new generation of young leaders that are better equipped and possess the tools that we may no longer possess and need to learn:
- Geologists who can combine geophysics to technology to unlock future (unconventional, offshore...);
- Engineers who can help us maximize the efficiency of our facilities and run effective maintenance programs to avoid petroleum losses;
- Scientists and creative minds that can introduce new ways to reduce our carbon footprint;
- Process engineers who can anticipate the shifting dynamics and maximize the profit margin from each barrel of oil;
- Data analysts who can manage & transform the data generated at every step of the hydrocarbon value chain into real efficiencies and cost savings;
- Programmers who can build & adapt the complex models & systems to fully automate facilities;
- Strong marketers that can better sell our crude and products to the international markets.
The strong talents that we are looking for are no longer from my generation, it is really up to our young leaders to enter into the workforce, inspire and teach us how to successfully tackle the 4th industrial age.
Achieving the 2035 Vision
Al-Munaifi said that the oil and gas sector is the engine to help achieve His Highness, the Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed's 2035 vision “New Kuwait. This vision can only be realized by building a strong workforce that is contributing to its growth. “My generation will contribute to the His Highness's vision but it is up to our young leaders to see it through and implement it. This industry has remained resilient because it has always attracted talents. We are at a stage where we are in a great need of innovative young leaders looking to push the frontiers. In recent surveys, young people have expressed that they most desire salary, good work-life balance and job stability. At the core, this is exactly what our industry offers here in the GCC. All my peers and myself have built long and exciting careers working for companies that truly care for our and our families' well-being." He said.
Bridging the Perception
He stressed the need to address misconceptions about the oil and gas industry, where some young talents continue to believe the industry offers little beyond manual labor roles. He noted that the misconception that we are only looking for petroleum engineers and chemical engineers must be killed. “This industry is really a home to every profession as it requires technical skills but also creativity at every stage of the value chain. We need to do more to attract students to see oil and gas as their future. Highlighting our new technology needs: We understand that young talents is navigating towards industries that they believe will be most impacted by new technologies. Our 150-year-old oil and gas industry has made continuous strides in innovation throughout its history, and these technical advancements need to be conveyed to our younger population. If technological advancement and application is what interests you, than this is the industry to join. Many of the new digital age concepts you hear like real time monitoring, big data, etc. are being applied as we speak on our fields." He added.
Attracting Women
Al-Munaifi touched on attracting Kuwaiti women to work in the Company. He said that KOC is the natural place for future women leaders. He stressed that the oil and gas industry knows no gender, and it has created great engineers, scientists and top management. “Our industry is appealing for females and we need to kill any bias if it exists. I am proud of my company for many reasons and one of them is the fact that we enjoy one of the highest female workforce percentage in the industry. Our Kuwaiti women have always been instrumental to our industry's success. We need to continue to make this industry appealing to our females. We are committed to identifying, recruiting and hiring women. Furthermore, we are supporting female mentoring programs and professional development. To the young women in the audience I say, forget any misconception you may have about his industry not being attractive to you. I would go beyond and say there is no professional career path in Kuwait that is out of reach to our women." He added.
Universities: A project for the Future
Al-Munaifi said that universities are extremely essential for the oil sector in Kuwait. “In a context where large producing fields are becoming mature and require cutting-edge technologies, where offshore Oil & Gas is our next growth opportunity, where digital revolution is redesigning our work organization, and where the energy transition cannot no longer be ignored, universities have a major role to play. However, our Universities also need to stay relevant and provide courses in the new domains that we are required to drive our industry. Our educational institutes need to reinstate the sense of elitism we had when we were studying and preparing ourselves to serve this sector." He said.
However, he added that he has already started to envision what his asset of the future will look like. He called it the South & East Kuwait asset of the future. He pointed out that his Directorate, as the home of the Burgan oil field, has reached a new level, switching from a primary recovery stage to a second recovery-operating mode, enriching Kuwait's expertise in terms of technology, petro-technical capabilities, and project management practices. S&EK is an asset of reservoirs & infrastructures, which continues to scale up: new investments create a growing sphere of knowledge and science farming in the soil of Kuwait, and a unique sense of innovation. This intangible & valuable part of S&EK protects our reservoirs for the next generations, ensuring that our oil & gas can transition to more complex operating conditions. “As such, I am launching a project to visualize and construct the South & East Kuwait of the future; envisioning S&EK would look like 50 years from now. I would like to launch this project and support it with the creation of the Kuwait Oil & Gas Young Leaders (KOGYL program). The program will provide a unique occasion to any of our young leaders that are interested to join my team and support this initiative. This program would be open to all those who are interested and not only our employees. I would be happy to welcome young talents who are keen to feed us with their ideas and support us on our quest." He said.
Panel Discussion
In the course of the forum's activities, five specialized experts, Professor Issa Al-Safran of the Faculty of Petroleum Engineering at Kuwait University, Ali Al-Ghouthi, General Manager of the “Enhanced Technical Services Agreement Management between KOC and Shell, Imad Al-Ajmi of Baker Hughes, and Rajesh Puri of Schlumberger Kuwait, delivered presentations on the theme of the forum.
In his presentation, Professor Al-Safran explained how students could contribute to the future of energy sector in Kuwait, providing many examples of the ability to accomplish ambitions with perseverance, and advising students to listen, learn, lead and not fear failure.
Al-Ghouthi touched on his experience of joining Shell. He said that his world has changed due to suggestions related to the value of employee in companies. He stressed that this equation has three dimensions: to have an important impact in the position the employee occupies, to make others partners in his success story, and to explore a world of opportunities.
For his part, Emad Al Ajmi gave a detailed explanation of the history of the oil and gas industry in the world and the stages of its development and future prospects. He pointed out that the ability to keep up with the changes in the oil and gas industry is a measure of intelligence, where digital transformation and artificial intelligence and other determinants of success are of great importance.
Al-Ajmi also touched on Kuwait's vision of the transformations taking place in the energy sector and its relationship with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, which stipulates that 15 percent of the country's energy needs should be produced from alternative sources by 2030.
Rajiv Puri also made a similar offer.