FULL OF ENERGY

Seif Nadabi joined PDO in 1978 – the year the company began gas production –and is now a key fixture in the Gas Directorate after rising up the ladder to become Operations Manager. While playing a pivotal role in ensuring customers receive a reliable and timely supply, his professional experience has placed him in the ideal position to survey the growth of PDO’s gas business.

He said: “When Yibal was commissioned in 1978, we were doing less than five million cubic metres a day servicing gas within PDO and export gas as fuel to the newly commissioned Al Ghubrah power generation plant; and shortly after we opened the upstream gas facilities cubic metres in Saih Rawl in 1999 we had reached 25 million with a single gas processing train. In 2000, the second train was commissioned. This was the year when PDO started to export gas to the Oman Liquefied Natural Gas (OLNG) installation at Sur to the outside market.

“Last year, we produced almost

77 million cubic metres a day and are meeting the gas demand for all our customers, despite increased requirements from OLNG for export, and are now acting as a swing producer for the nation. It’s great progress and a great achievement for the country.”

With a background in asset integrity,

Seif originally joined the Gas Directorate in 2005 as Maintenance Strategy and Support Team Leader but has also worked in demanding posts such as Marmul Area Co-ordinator and Delivery Team Leader for Nimr, Rima and Bahja.

But he will never forget his baptism of challenges as Gas Operations Manager. He recalled: “Almost from the moment I started as Operations Manager in 2012, it was very tough. We had to shut down three compressors at Yibal because of leaks and that meant partially shutting down the station and reducing its production to half.

“We managed to transfer production from some of our high pressure wells, bypassing the Yibal second-stage depletion compressors (Y2DC), and it took us six months to devise a solution with the installation of temporary coolers and to get production back on track.

We also had motor issues at the Central Processing Plant at Saih Rawl and the Saih Nihayda Gas Plant. But I’m proud to say, we again overcame the problem (motor blade design issues) by working closely with the manufacturers.

“There were two further intense years before things changed for the better. Production has now stabilised after we worked together with the functions and the assets as one team. It’s a very good feeling.”

The challenge of meeting both domestic and export demand has been a constant but, as Seif prepares to step down from his post, he feels a sense of satisfaction, saying: “The great thing about the hydrocarbon business is you deplete and you recover. Gas will still be with us for many years to come. We are still discovering new fields. The find at Mabrouk North East, with estimated recoverable reserves of more than four trillion cubic feet (TcF) and 112 million barrels of condensate, is a fantastic to the nation and new technologies will help us even more.

“Whatever you see in oil, is also applied in gas. You cannot just relax or you will run out of business. “Whoever comes to gas they need to be on alert all the time. You deal with the customer direct. You deal with the shareholder direct. If you lose a station for whatever reason, you will get a direct call asking for a meeting.

“You have to have a problem-fix immediately or otherwise you will hear about it! The great thing is I have a good team here and in the Interior. Young and full of energy. In the next few years, they are going to be fantastic.

“The great thing about PDO is that it is a company where you are given an opportunity to grow. It depends on the individual how far they take that.

For you to go higher and higher in the organisation, there is no constraint if you put in the effort.”

In his remaining two years at PDO,

Seif will act as a senior coach to young colleagues both at Mina Al Fahal and in the field, saying: “We have a lot of new staff and we are asking them what support they need so we can give it to them. I am really looking forward to that.”