PETRONAS Widens Talent Search, Offers Overseas Graduates Sponsorships

The dynamic PETRONAS E&P sector helped the company achieve a 5.8 percent increase in petroleum production in 2012 to 2.127 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (MMboepd), compared to the previous year’s 2.01 MMboepd. New production from Iraq’s Garraf and Majnoon fields last August and October, respectively together with first oil from Malaysia’s Balai field as well as the Kapal, Banang & Merantai (KBM) Cluster fields in late 2013 also contributed to the increase.

With PETRONAS expected to be engaged in more upstream projects in Malaysia and around the world, the availability of appropriate staffing would be needed to ensure operational efficiency. 

In its downstream sector, PETRONAS operates three oil refineries in Malaysia and one in South Africa, while holding stakes in a few local petrochemical plants. The company’s April 4 announcement on the approval of a Final Investment Decision (FID) to develop the 6,242-acre Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in southern Johor, Malaysia, is likely to increase demand for skilled workers to operate the project that is scheduled to commence operations in 2019.

The PIC project comprises a world scale Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID), with a capacity of 300,000 barrels-per-day and 7.7 million tons per annum, respectively, including associated facilities. RAPID’s development cost is estimated at around $16 billion while investment in the associated facilities is expected to reach around $11 billion.

“In its operational stage, the PIC will require 4,000 employees,” the Malaysian NOC said in its statement.

Industry Skill Sets Required

Recruiting suitable skilled employees has been a major priority for Asia’s oil and gas industry since this could impact directly on growth in the sector. Skills shortages and/or aging workforce was ranked after operating costs as the second most critical barrier to the industry’s growth in the region this year, Norway’s DNV GL pointed out in its “Challenging Climates: The Outlook for the Oil and Gas Industry in 2014” report.


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