Collaboration is key to weathering oil price fall

MAIDEN CONFERENCE: Contractors squeezed enough, time to optimise activities through collaboration, says Salim bin Nasser al Aufi, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Oil & Gas

Salim bin Nasser al Aufi (pictured), Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Oil & Gas, has urged the Oil & Gas industry to work together in order to help the sector weather the ongoing downturn that has left contractors “bleeding” and businesses “squeezed”.

Speaking at the inauguration of the 1st OPAL Oil & Gas Conference 2017 at the Grand Millennium Hotel yesterday, Al Aufi appealed for “collaboration” as the way forward amid a global oil price slump now entering its fourth year.

“I think the next era for us — three years into this so-called crisis but which is really an opportunity for challenges — is how do we collaborate,” the Under-Secretary said. “We have done enough squeezing of the contractors, we have done enough renegotiations of contracts, and removing a lot of the fat. When I listen to the contractors, they are literally bleeding, with some saying they are getting out of business. The operators are bleeding as well, going by the figures that I saw recently which are not very healthy for them. So the key to staying afloat in these challenges times is through collaboration.”

More than 170 industry leaders and executives attended the maiden edition of the OPAL Oil & Gas Conference, a turnout that bodes well for the embrace of goals necessary to strengthen the industry going forward, said Al Aufi.

He also urged the various constituents of the sector to communicate with each other in order to address any challenges collectively. “We need to network and to listen,” Al Aufi said. “The operators need to listen to their main contractors, who in turn, must listen to their subcontractors, and so on. We also need to listen carefully to the boys and girls who are at the wellheads – people who know what’s happening in the field. They are the ones who can tell us whether the knob should be turned left or right, or left unchanged, in terms of what makes money for you. At the end of the day, we are in this business to make money for the nation, for companies, and for the shareholders. And we can make money by optimising our activities,” he stated.

Earlier, Al Aufi congratulated OPAL on the successful hosting of the conference in line with its mandate to serve the Oil & Gas industry. “OPAL has transformed over the past three years. There was a point when we thought we should close it down. But today we are really proud of what this organisation is doing.”

OPAL Chairman Dr Amer al Rawas, described the conference as a networking forum for the Oil & Gas industry amid a painful slump caused by the low oil price environment. “This will mark the start of an annual series, serving as a networking forum for our Oil & Gas community, and will allow for knowledge exchange and to learn from international best practices. The conference comes almost three years after the start of the oil price crisis, which has really consumed a lot of our discussions, and conferences and workshops. Today, we have a fresh look at the future, technologies, and best practices, as we go beyond the crisis through operational excellence, harnessing of technologies, and advances in the use of big data.”

OPAL CEO Mandhari also gathering. Musallam addressed al the