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Dr Khalid Al Jahwari, Oman Country Manager of Petrofac,

OMAN - Energy & Mining

Dr Khalid Al Jahwari

Oman Country Manager, Petrofac

Bio

With more than 22 years’ energy sector experience, Dr Khaled Al Jahwari is Petrofac’s Country Manager, Oman. He has a varied background across industry in technical, commercial and management roles, working across the Middle East, Africa and Europe over the course of his career. Dr Al Jahwari holds a bachelors degree in Petroleum Engineering from Sultan Qaboos University, as well as an MBA and a PhD from the UK’s University of Strathclyde. Dr Al Jahwari has significant leadership experience. In his role as ambassador in-country, he represents the Petrofac Group, working closely with the various parties across the entire Petrofac portfolio, in the ongoing delivery and development of the company’s full-service capability offering and operations in Oman. Prior to joining Petrofac in August 2021, Dr Al Jahwari was Shell’s General Manager of Operations in Egypt, having previously been Shell’s Global Production Excellence Leader, based in The Hague, Netherlands. Prior to Shell, he spent 15 years with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), holding a number of key roles. Dr Al Jahwari has a real passion for the industry and helping shape an effective energy transition in Oman and internationally. He is a key driver in continuing to build Petrofac’s sustainable contribution towards creating in-country value for the Sultanate and well respected by his peers for his focus on people and developing young national talent.

“There are many things that differentiate Petrofac. We’re well known for our best-in-class delivery and high quality.”

TBY talks to Dr Khalid Al Jahwari, Oman Country Manager of Petrofac, about the company’s competitive advantages, sustainability, and plans for the year ahead.

What competitive advantage does Petrofac have in Oman that other companies do not?

There are many things that differentiate Petrofac. We’re well known for our best-in-class delivery and high quality. Delivering locally to global standards is key to our strategy and unlocks in-country value. We’re extremely proud that most of Oman’s key energy sector projects have been successfully delivered by Petrofac. We have worked on major projects with PDO, as well as with others including BP, OQ, and Oxy, all the major projects here in the Sultanate being delivered by our teams with our partners. This is the result of our experience, efficiency, and being driven to deliver. When we take on a project we complete it to the highest standards, no matter the challenges. That is the one thing that really makes us different. We also have extensive experience across different areas of operations, whether it is a light design or a complex design. We have worked successfully in upstream, midstream, and downstream, and there are no companies that can do all the three streams in oil and gas like we do here. As well as having worked on many of the Sultanate’s most significant oil and gas assets, we are ready to support future new energy infrastructure in-country, bringing the best technology and deploying our people, expertise and best practices. We have a truly unique, competitive advantage.

In which ways are you contributing to the ICV?

One thing that we have started doing, which again differentiates us, is taking the services and materials from local manufacturers and SMEs to be utilized in our projects internationally. I have not heard of others in Oman doing the same. General discussions about ICV usually involve investing in Oman to use the material within Oman; we have done that for many years and achieved more than USD3 billion ICV here in the Sultanate. However, we have gone the extra mile to bring local products and materials and to use them overseas and to successfully export to different continents and countries; we have supplied our international projects with more than USD175 million of services and goods. Recently we awarded a contract to a cable manufacture in Oman to supply a project we are executing in Algeria and we are in discussion with a vessels fabricator with a view to working together internationally. The other thing that we are doing with ICV and CSR in general, everywhere we go, is to invest in local communities and upgrade infrastructure to enhance the quality of life. We have constructed roads, laid internet routes between cities, built local markets, contributed to hospitals, and supported cyclone impacted families; we see this as part of our responsibilities and will continue investing more. We also support the government drive in building Omani capabilities and preparing the ‘workforce of future’; we invested and jointly operate with Takatuf, the prestigious and state-of-the-art Takatuf Petrofac Oman (TPO) training center. Our TPO graduates are today working in major oil and gas companies and supporting in delivering operational excellence and safeguarding the integrity of assets.

What is Petrofac’s approach to sustainability and green practices?

Petrofac’s sustainability strategy is based around three ‘ESG’ pillars. ‘Environmental’ and minimizing both ours and our client’s carbon footprint. ‘Social’, promoting safe local delivery of our projects and operations and building diverse workforces. This is all underpinned by ‘Governance’ which means a clear and consistent ethical approach and rigorous compliance in everything we do. As an energy services company, our business is inextricably linked to environmental considerations, these include climate change. For example, we have phased out single-use plastics across all our permanent offices and are now looking at how we can reduce them across all our operational sites. In Oman, you will not find any plastic bottles in our offices and we are maximizing reuse and recycling. The second thing is that we have started to encourage SMEs to also recycle and are supporting them, even providing financial assistance just to help them get started. We are collaborating with local communities and have sponsored bins for use at different beaches in Oman to avoid waste and the protect the eco system. In terms of CO2 emissions, and this is something big, we are trying to reduce our emissions and have a specific target. In 2021 our absolute emissions reduced by 24% globally and we have a commitment to reach Net Zero in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. A big focus area is that we raise greater awareness on these issues and help educate people to create change. We are currently in discussions with an exciting Omani startup on using a bio-diesel to reduce carbon emissions from our operations. Our Oman teams have started working on partnering with universities and are talking a lot more about sustainability in general, making a consistent theme out of it. In 2022, we will have a heavy program, whereby we partner with schools, universities, and different NGOs. We will focus on three main topics: sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and preparation for the job market, supporting the energy transition.

What are your main goals and growth priorities for the year ahead?

Oman remains a core market for Petrofac and our goal is future growth, both with existing and new clients, who we prefer to call our partners. We are currently delivering important key projects in-country, so will continue to ensure we execute these safely and effectively. Another objective is to continue supporting urbanization and building our Muscat office as one of the main hubs of Petrofac where we have all our engineering, procurement and construction services. While hydrocarbons will continue to satisfy a majority of energy demand, I expect renewable energy sources to grow rapidly over the coming decades. At Petrofac we are already deploying our engineering and project management skills in support of new energy infrastructure projects, and have the right skills and experience to capitalize on future investment in this market here. Right across the mix, we will continue to support Omanis to develop and grow and raise our organization to an even higher level.

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