Orpic General Manager Discusses US$232 Million Benefit to Oman and Company

Success for Orpic and Oman Credited to 'The Orpic Way'

Abu Dhabi-UAE: 15 February 2012 - Dr. Gabor Kenessey, General Manager, Supply Chain Management, Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) recently participated in an interview with the World Refining Association (WRA) to discuss the reasons for the organisation's success and its impact on Oman.

Orpic is the successful result of integrating three renowned companies in Oman, namely, Oman Refineries and Petrochemicals Company LLC (ORPC), Aromatics Oman LLC (AOL) and Oman Polypropylene (OPP) with the target of making US$1 million a day in 2011. However, in 2011, Orpic delivered earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of US$418 million.

"By aligning the mindset of our employees and putting integrated business procedures into practice, we were able to significantly improve our performance," said Dr. Kenessey. "We also reached record utilisation of our assets, which is one of the main factors behind our success this year."

According to Dr. Kenessey, 61 'Quick Win' ideas were put into practice all without capital expenditure or just minor investments from April 2010 to end of 2011. The result was a cumulative US$232 million benefit to Orpic and the Omani nation, which is credited to 'The Orpic Way'.

Dr. Kenessey, said: "'The Orpic Way' is to involve our colleagues in all the decision making procedures and regularly communicate the achievements and new challenges. During our journey of redesigning and staffing the new integrated organisation, hundreds of workshops and thousands of interviews and challenge sessions were organised and all of our approximately 1600 employees had at least one chance to either participate in a workshop, or go through a self-assessment, to apply to new jobs in the integrated company. This open and continuous communication practice encouraged our fellow colleagues and created a dynamic and committed work environment."

Orpic's philosophy is a testament to how motivating employees to change allowed the whole programme to succeed. Furthermore, the organization took the challenge of the rapidly growing consumption and designed an expansion configuration to ensure that local fuel demand is met and to provide benefit to its shareholders and the Omani nation.

Dr. Kenessey stated that in 2011, Oman had to import only one-fifth of the diesel and gasoline it had imported in 2010, thanks to Orpic's success in increasing production. In addition, during the second half of the year, he reports that Orpic supplied 100 per cent of the nation's refined fuel needs despite double-digit growth in consumption.

On being asked about the impact of Supply Chain Management (SCM) during times of integration and expansion, Dr. Kenessey replied: "We put into practice numerous improvement initiatives, or quick wins, initiated by SCM which resulted more than US$116 million benefits. SCM also played a leading role in the recent review and restructure of the Sohar Refinery expansion. The new technical design provides more fuel to Oman, a higher conversion factor, and more profitability compared to the original one."

Dr. Kenessey will participate in Middle East Downstream Week (MEDW) 2012 from 25 - 28 March 2012 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The conference will enable attendees to: gain a global perspective on the refining industry; discover the latest technologies being utilised by top refiners to drive efficiency; leverage strategic partnerships that offer unprecedented access to untapped markets in the GCC and beyond; and find innovative finance solutions to drive development, diversification, ROI and profits.

-Ends-

For media enquiries please contact:
The Public Relations Company
Kay Braganza
Consultant
kay.braganza@tprc.ae
Tel: +971 50 7681684

MEDW 2012
Arianna Neri
Project Director
a.neri@theenergyexchange.co.uk
Tel: +39 338 111 2103 | +971 2 401 2930