PDO implements new organizational structure to ready itself for the future
Posted: 19 January 2005
With some inspiring words from His Excellency Mohammed bin Hamed al Rumhy, the Minister of Oil & Gas, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) formally adopted a new organizational structure..
At a company award ceremony that coincided with the launch of the new organization, His Excellency Mr Rumhy, who is also Chairman of PDO’s Board of Directors, told PDO employees: “The country needs you; the country needs oil and gas. And we need you to deliver. To this end, a streamlined structure for the company will help.”
The re-organization was one of several major initiatives that arose from a thorough investigation of PDO’s ways of working, carried out under the rubric Operating Model Review (OMR). The OMR team came up with a new set of processes, roles and responsibilities that would reduce interfaces between working units and assign clear, single-point accountability for each process. But it was clear from the start that the revamped processes would have to be supported by a new organizational structure, which was approved by the company’s Board of Directors last October.
The new company structure differs in several ways from the existing one, but it exhibits two key features. One is that the management of both enhanced-oil-recovery projects and gas projects will now be conducted within full-fledged “asset directorates”, reflecting the growth potential of these two business areas to PDO and the Government. The second key feature is the strengthening of the role of what are referred to as “functions”—the various disciplines that are brought to bear in the conduct of the company’s businesses. The managers in the functional organization will be entrusted to push for standardisation and improved ways of working across the whole company. The functions will thus set technical standards and fine-tune the business processes, whereas the the asset directorates, which also include the northern and southern oil directorates, will implement the standards and processes as they execute the company’s plans.
The new organization has other key features. Given the importance of drilling wells in a cost-effective way, the well-engineering function has also been elevated to directorate status. In addition, an infrastructure directorate has been formed to focus on the efficient provision of power, pipelines, IT, accommodation, transport and security to the entire organization. Technical services have also been fully integrated into the organization and human-resources services have been centralized.
“The new organisational structure is a significant step in our comeback,” says John Malcolm, PDO’s Managing Director. “We will only be successful if we drive through real changes in the company’s business processes, and if we really change the way we work at the frontline.”
"Simply put, PDO is reorganizing itself to become more efficient and effective,” concludes Mr Malcolm. “PDO’s future oil production is predicated on expensive waterflooding projects in the medium term and even more expensive enhanced-oil-recovery projects in the long term. It is essential that PDO unleash the talents of both its own staff and its contracting partners to improve the way we do our business and hence produce oil as cost-efficiently as possible.”
Posted by Editor Pipeline Magazine
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