Week 42 in Review: World Oil Awards, executive appointments, and Aramco as an employer of choice

Aramco made news all around the world over the past week. Here are some of the top headlines over the past week on Aramco LIFE.

Aramco collects a pair of World Oil Awards

On Oct. 13, Aramco and EXPEC ARC were recognized at the 21st World Oil Awards ceremony that was held in Houston. EXPEC ARC was recognized with two World Oil Awards in two categories: Exploration Technology and Water Management, during this year’s event honoring the upstream energy industry’s leading innovators and game changing technologies.

The competition was fierce with over 300 nominations in 18 different categories, representing multiple disciplines within the upstream sector. 

The Best Exploration Technology Award went to Aramco for “Airborne Micro-TEM and Physics Deep Learning: A Solution for Seismic Near Surface Corrections in Sand Covered Areas.” Sand covered areas such as desert environments, pose challenges to seismic imaging for resource exploration and monitoring.  

The Best Water Management Technology Award was received for “A Sustainable Produced Water Management Technology for Circular Water Economy” also known as zero liquid discharge (ZLD). With huge volumes of water produced along with hydrocarbons in oil and gas fields, a sustainable produced water management solution was developed to recycle and reuse water by transforming its ionic properties. This breakthrough produced water management solution comprising a unique combination of custom-designed pretreatment system to remove residual oil/hydrogen sulfide and dynamic vapor recovery technology for salt removal from hypersaline oil field produced waters. 

Al Ashgar, Al-Dabal appointed to executive director positions

Samer S. Al Ashgar and Nawaf K. Al-Dabal have been appointed as executive directors of Aramco, and Group Finance and Development Support, respectively. 

Prior to this appointment, Al Ashgar held the position of general manager of Characterization and Field Development Geosciences in Exploration, from late 2020. He was previously appointed as general manager, Southern Area Gas Producing, handling all gas production and its surface facilities from 2019. 

Prior to this appointment, Al-Dabal held the position of assistant treasurer and general manager of the Strategic Finance and Development organization, a role he had held since February 2019. Prior to that, Al-Dabal served as general manager of Transaction Development in New Business Development since June 2018.

Increasingly an employer of choice

From 150,000 people surveyed across 57 countries, this year the World’s Best Employers survey conducted by Forbes, the renowned business and wealth publication, showed Aramco had climbed 173 positions in one year to secure the 46th place among the 800 companies who made the list.

Employees working for multinational companies and institutions were surveyed to determine which ones excel in corporate impact and image, talent development, gender equality, and social responsibility.

Participants were asked to rate their willingness to recommend their employers to friends and family and to evaluate other employers in their respective industries that stood out either positively or negatively. In this, as announced on Oct. 11, Aramco secured its place in the top 15%, easily placing the company as one of the best places to work globally.

Aramcons soar at Tuwaiq Drone Challenge

Aramco’s Inspection Department won third place in the prestigious Tuwaiq Drone Challenge, which concluded in Riyadh at the Tuwaiq Academy at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. Aramco’s team, named “Well-7” after the company’s first discovery of oil in 1938, accepted the third place prize of SR200,000 at the closing ceremony on Oct. 6. 

There were 28 contenders competing to use drone technology to resolve a set of key challenges that were proposed by event strategic sponsors; namely NEOM, Aramco, the Ministry of Transport & Logistic Services, Green Riyadh, and the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology.

Company lends its support to collaborative effort to boost Kingdom’s offshore fabrication capacity

Aramco, in collaboration with international partners, is establishing two offshore fabrication yards that look to deliver a more than 200 percent increase in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s offshore fabrication capacity.

The new yards are being constructed in Ras Al Khair in collaboration with National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) and McDermott International. They are expected to fabricate and assemble offshore platforms, jackets and structures for subsea pipelines. 

Designed to international standards and harnessing latest technologies, they are intended to serve the Kingdom, GCC and broader markets. 

Establishing the yards at Ras Al Khair also helps support localization of the maritime industry, and supplement the nearby King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries and Services.