Week 52 in Review: Engineering Services recognitions, drilling academy graduations, Arabic language celebrations and more

Here are some of the top headlines over the past week.

Engineering Services celebrates success 

Engineering Services (ES) honored 27 professionals and teams under seven awards categories during the ES Excellence Award ceremony, held at the North Park Multipurpose Hall, for their outstanding contributions and achievements in different business fields. 

Designed to showcase engineering potentials along with their significant contributions across the company, the annual ceremony also seeks to inspire Aramco professionals to prevail in their areas of interest and earn recognition.  

“We are very proud of our people’s achievements this year, and we are looking forward to an even better business performance in 2022,” said Motaz A. Al Mashouk, ES executive director, in praising all 27 winners.

Saudi Arabian Drilling Academy graduates 136 young Saudis

The Saudi Arabian Drilling Academy (SADA) in Abqaiq recently held its fourth graduation ceremony, paying tribute to 136 young Saudis as the move from desks to monkey boards and rotary tables after completing their training. 

"SADA is becoming a regional-leading training center in the Kingdom by providing top-quality training programs, and we are aware of our role in supporting the Kingdom's vision,” said Abdul Hameed A. Al Rushaid, SADA chairman and Aramco’s vice president of Drilling and Workover.

SADA also recently received a big boost with the grand opening of the Technical School of Job Skills and a visit from top SADA stakeholders officials. During a special ribbon cutting ceremony, Al-Rushaid and members of SADA’s General Assembly and Board of Trustees toured the new building and visited classrooms that were opened to students in summer of 2021

The state-of-the-art building first-hand houses drilling and well control simulators that are crucial for enhancing the learning experience and exceeding international standards in well-control training.

Ithra and Al-Qafilah magazine highlight Arabic language impact

This year’s World Arabic Language Day (Dec. 18) came as a number of projects aimed at spreading the Arabic culture come to publication.  

The most notable of these is an updated collection of pre-Islamic Arabic poems called “The Mu’allaqat for Millennials,” published by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in cooperation with Al-Qafilah magazine. 

In addition to the published English edition, the Mu’allaqat are being translated into three other languages. Another project, “Translating the World: Contemporary Poetry from Saudi Arabia,” project, strives to translate contemporary Saudi poetry whose words continue to inspire its audience. 

Arabic language is also being featured as part of the Saudi Arabian pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020, within a cultural program called “16 Windows.” In this program, a number of Arabic Mu’allaqat are highlighted under the theme “Mu’allaqat in World Languages,” and the poems are selected to carry a deep literary and cultural content. Translations of these Mu’allaqat into various languages have been displayed on a huge screen for thousands of visitors to appreciate both the profound meaning, as well as the aesthetic values of these masterpieces. 

New Executive Leadership Center opens in Ras Tanura

Aramco’s Management and Professional Development Department (M&PDD) has opened a new Executive Leadership Center in Ras Tanura. Following a renovation of the existing Executive Leadership Center Building, this new facility will enhance and strengthen Aramco’s leadership pipeline. 

The center’s launch is aligned with our new vision and mission to be a global leader in providing future-focused development and to develop professionals and leaders to drive personal corporate success. This objective is best summarized by the department’s guiding principle that development should be for the right person, at the right time, in the right program. 

The facility features 12 rooms dedicated to assess leaders companywide, from supervisors to corporate management. There is also a SMART classroom, and another simply referred to as the “Innovative” room. Both rooms can host up to 25 participants and are designed to take learning to the next level through incorporating hybrid models of training.  

These 14 rooms will afford practitioners the capability to conduct training with providers outside of Saudi Arabia in real time, and also offer opportunities for participants working in remote areas to attend virtually. The new facility increased the utilization of the center by 95%. 

PETC: On the ‘RISE,’ and harnessing future technologies

The present and future pace of delivery for projects in the Kingdom will be decided by the ability of project management (PM) experts to embrace a digital revolution and navigate a new technology landscape.

Sponsored by Aramco PM, attendees of the two-day 2021 Project Execution Technology Conference (PETC) heard from top tier PM experts on how technology and digitalization would help transform future project execution and powerfully contribute to the delivery of the Kingdom’s ambitious Vision 2030 economic roadmap. 

Under the theme, “RISE: Revolution in Smart Execution,” the PETC hosted a series of keynote speeches and panel discussions that explored the impact that new and future technologies will have on project execution.

“Advanced solutions and technologies will be successful when all of us are fully integrated and all together, from Engineering, Procurement and Construction, to the vendors and suppliers,” said vice president of PM, Abdulkarim A. Al Ghamdi. 

“The integration of us all will bring success, and ensure excellence and the accelerated deployment of advanced technologies and digital solutions.