09 May 2015
Muscat: There is room  for more 'transparency' in the tendering process, says a senior official at the Ministry of Oil and Gas, who believes more clarity would enhance the performance of the sector.

"We need to be very transparent," Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, undersecretary at the ministry, said during a roundtable meeting at the Occidental office on Monday, to discuss the challenges facing local service companies in the oil and gas sector.

Meeting

The event, organised by the ministry, Oman Society for Petroleum Services (Opal) and the Oil and Gas Year, was attended by senior officials from Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), Oxy and BP as well as some other renowned companies.

One of the questions asked was whether the current tendering process benefits local service companies, in response to which Al Aufi said that there are certain areas where there is still room for further transparency.

According to him, the companies bidding for a certain contract should have the right to know who they are competing with and who the other players are. 

Also, those companies who do not win the contract should be informed why they were not chosen so that they can improve the problematic areas next time, said the official.

Other questions 
A number of other questions were also asked during the session, which were answered by the undersecretary as well as Raoul Restucci (PDO), Hamoud Al Tobi (Al Shawamikh Oil Services), Hans Erlings (Galfar) and Hilal Al Busaidy (Gulf Energy), in addition to Ali Suleym Al Junaibi (Al Ghalbi International), Robert Swain (Occidental of Oman Inc. - Oxy Oman), Zeinoun Klink (Halliburton), Tatsuro Yamaguchi (Mitsui) and Fahmy Al Musharfi (Daleel Petroleum). 

With regard to Omanisation, the panellists were almost unanimous that Omanisation targets are yet to be achieved in top positions. 

They also noted that employment opportunities in the public sector have led to many trained workers leaving their jobs in the private sector and joining government bodies.

In addition, Al Aufi said that one challenge facing Omanisation is the fact that the education system does not meet the market's requirements and some fresh graduates do not accept to be re-trained, and demand top positions from the outset. 

The official from Mitsui said Omanisation may have succeeded in terms of 'quantity' but not 'quality'.

© Times of Oman 2015