BP has announced renewed localisation efforts as the company set itself a 90% target for its workforce in Azerbaijan by 2018.
The British multinational oil and gas company has extensive operations in the Middle East and Asia and is a major operator of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field.
In order to deliver its projects on time and within budget, the company will need to mobilise a workforce of around 12,000 between 2014 and 2018.
But when it comes to recruiting in Azerbaijan, the company faces some challenges. This is true for experienced hires and also graduates, according to Jeyhun Karamov, manager, petro-technical Resource Entry Programme, BP Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Region.
“One of the main channels of hiring Azerbaijani nationals on an annual basis is through BP’s graduate scheme – the Challenge Programme. Over the years BP has faced challenges in creating a supply of top talent and high quality graduate candidates for petro-technical and engineering disciplines from local universities and needed to address this problem.”
“Over the years, BP has been tackling this challenge through various interventions including scholarships, bursaries, support to professional organizations and university sponsorship programmes,” Karamov said.
“In 2012, BP launched a new in-house training and development programme – the Petro-technical Resource Entry Programme. This allows BP to increase its Challenge intake and diversify its recruitment pool by adding graduates from disciplines such as Applied Maths, Physics & Chemistry and expand coverage to regional universities.”
“It also enables applicants with lower English language skills but good technical knowledge to join the company,” he added.
The Petro-technical Resource Entry Programme (PREP) was specifically created to develop young, local talent in subsurface, drilling, and engineering disciplines over an 11-month period.
The training programme is tailored to equip the trainees with improved English communication skills and scarce technical skills to increase the Oil & Gas workforce in the near future and candidates who successfully complete PREP enter BP’s Challenge programme.
BP’s Shah Deniz gas development project is coming online in Azerbaijan in the next few years.
Shah Deniz 2 and the associated Southern Corridor gas pipelines, is a giant project that will see a $40bn investment, the company announced.
Once operational, the project will add a further 16bn cubic meters per year of gas production to the approximately 9 bcma produced by Shah Deniz Stage 1.
