Saudi Aramco

• Industry: Oil and Gas Refining and Production
• Location: Headquarters in Saudi Arabia with subsidiaries and joint ventures in many countries around the world, including India, China, Philippines, South Korea, USA, UK, etc.
• Turnover: US$ 111 Billion p.a.
• Employees: 76,000 globally
• Website: https://www.saudiaramco.com

Context

Saudi Aramco is the government owned oil and gas company of Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest companies in the world by revenue, and according to accounts seen by Bloomberg News, the most profitable company in the world.

Saudi Aramco has both the world’s second-largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 270 billion barrels and largest daily oil production of all oil producing companies.

Problem

Although Saudi Aramco has had a highly successful programme in place for its leadership cadre, there was very little in place to identify the top technology specialists in the organisation.

There was, therefore, a need to identify those scientists and specialist internal consultants, who were the ones who would transform the science and engineering capability of the company to ensure it remained at the forefront of scientific development.

Solution

First of all, the top management team needed to be convinced of the importance of enhancing the process and presentations were made to two management committees to achieve this.

Following this, a full assessment process was designed, incorporating interviews, a case study and presentation. A trial was then conducted to ensure that the process was valid and was identifying people with the right profile to be promoted. Full implementation was then undertaken in the following year and a report on its success presented to the top management committee of the company.

Conclusion

As a result of the introduction of this process, a significant improvement in the level of quality seen in top scientists and specialists was noted.

Numbers of patents have increased over the past few years and the company has embarked on an ambitious programme to convert crude oil to chemicals, using the specialists who have been assessed through this programme.