11. Saif Humaid Al Falasi
CEO, ENOC
In his role of CEO of the Emirates National Oil Company, Saif Humaid Al Falasi spearheads the group’s business strategy, and oversees operational excellence on a local and international level, in alignment with the vision and plans of the Dubai government.
A 34-year veteran of the energy industry, Al Falasi’s experience and knowledge spans a range of specialities, including project management and petroleum asset evaluation operations.
Al Falasi was appointed in late March last year, arriving from EMGAS and oversaw recorded sales of over 220mn barrels of crude oil and petroleum products in 2015, an increase of 16% over the previous year.
ENOC has also been boosted by the acquisition of Dragon Oil, of which Al Falasi said: “With Dragon Oil, we are now a vertically integrated oil & gas company that is well positioned to strengthen our nation’s energy security.”
12. Pete Bartlett
CEO, Bahrain Petroleum Company
Bahrain Petroleum Company – or BAPCO, as it is more commonly known – is the leading contributor to the country’s economy, making Dr. Pete Bartlett’s job a very important one indeed.
BAPCO is engaged in the oil industry, including refining, distribution of petroleum products and natural gas, sales and exports of crude oil and refined products. The company owns a 264,000 barrels-a-day refinery, storage facilities for more than 14mn barrels, a marketing terminal and a marine terminal for its petroleum products. About 95% of the company’s refined products are exports.
BAPCO is primarily engaged with exploration, refining, storage, production, marketing, training and development, and environmental initiatives in the Kingdom.
13. Isam bin Saud Al Zadjali
CEO, Oman Oil Company
It promises to be quite a year for the Oman Oil Company (OOC) and its CEO Isam bin Saud Al Zadjali.
The organisation is to be restructured into three divisions as part of plans to improve efficiency and support expansion. al-Zadjali revealed in February.
“The size of the company has grown. OOC is now operating in 15 countries. And with more expansion, we needed to revisit the way we run our investments and the need to restructure the company,” said Al-Jadjali.
The new structure, which has already been approved by the board of directors, will see one unit consolidate OOC’s domestic investments and look into selling some of the smaller assets, Zadjali said.
OOC had invested some $24.4bn in companies within Oman as of 2013, with investments in the Sultanate accounting for 65% of total spending. Investments in Duqm are expected to total around $15bn, Zadjali said.
14. Saif Ahmed Alghfeli
CEO, Al Hosn Gas
It has been a year of success for Al Hosn Gas, the company that has been charged with successfully developing, constructing, operating and maintaining the Shah Gas Field. The man in charge is Saif Ahmed Alghfeli, who last year announced that the field had become capable of delivering its maximum capacity of 1bn standard cubic feet per day.
The CEO has said of the Shah Gas Field – which won the EPC Project of the Year at the Oil & Gas Middle East Awards 2015: “Until quite recently, utilisation of the Shah Gas Field would have been a virtual impossibility. The remoteness of the site, the difficulties of extracting and handling such high levels of sourness, the attendant safety and environmental hazards – all represented huge obstacles to overcome, especially when much sweeter and more easily managed gas fields were available.”
15. Yousuf al Ojaili
President, BP Oman
It has been a difficult year for the multi-national across the globe, but successful work has been carried out in Oman, particularly the Khazzan project – one of the region’s largest unconventional reserves.
BP Oman has built phase of its project to deliver gas from the Khazzan field is now 65% completed. First gas from the Khazzan field is expected in late 2017 and production will eventually result in an increase of around 40% to Oman’s natural gas supply.
Yousuf al Ojaili, president of BP Oman, said, “BP Oman’s work at Khazzan will make a huge contribution to Oman’s energy supply, improving both energy security and the country’s foundations for industrial diversification.”
Ojaili added that around 11,000 jobs were created in the Khazzan project. He said that up to Q4 2015, the in-country value contribution was around 43% of BP’s third party spend, adding that Omanis working at BP Oman has risen to 72%, with a target of 90% by 2020.
16. Stephane Michel
President – MENA, Total
With Stephane Michel leading Total in the region, the French oil and gas giant has become one of the early birds to do resume business with Iran in its post-sanctions era. Total said it has signed a framework agreement to purchase crude oil from Iran during President Hassan Rouhani’s trade visit to Paris. Michel has also been devising Total’s expansion plans in the UAE and Qatar. In Abu Dhabi, Total is looking to build on its ADCO concession. Total is working with Qatar Petroleum to ‘find innovative and cost-efficient solutions to optimise production and ensure that the Al Khalij field is resilient to low crude price environment’, the company said in a statement.
17. Saif N. Al Suwaidi
CEO, Zakum Development Company (ZADCO)
The Zakum Development Company is a venture between ADNOC, ExxonMobil and Japan Oil Development. Led by CEO Saif N. Al Suwaidi, ZADCO spearheads oil production and related activities from one of Abu Dhabi’s most-prized Zakum oilfield. The Upper Zakum oilfield lies 84km northwest of Abu Dhabi and is the second-biggest oilfield in the Arabian Gulf and comprises four artificial islands with associated drilling and production facilities.
Last year, ZADCO extended Amec Foster Wheeler project management consultancy contract to oversee the UZ750 project in Upper Zakum. Amec Foster Wheeler said the project was due for completion in December 2017. Once online, it will be capable of generating 1mn barrels of oil per day until at least 2050. In January this year, ZADCO awarded Ramboll Oil & Gas a contract to undertake integrity studies for 15 pipelines in the Zakum field in Abu Dhabi. ZADCO will use the results to determine which pipelines need maintenance work or may need to be replaced in the future.
18. Andrew Vaughan
Vice President – Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Syria, Shell Abu Dhabi
Earlier this year, Shell announced that it has pulled out of the $10bn Bab sour gas project in Abu Dhabi, although its operations in the region remain pretty strong. The Anglo-Dutch international oil company, headed in Abu Dhabi by Andrew Vaughan cited ‘technical challenges’ and the falling price of oil as key factors in its decision. Shell’s pullout is in line with the company’s drive to become leaner, after witnessing profits drop due to low oil prices and after having acquired BG Group at the global level recently. Shell won the contract to develop the sour gas field in 2013, with the multi-national holding a 40% stake and ADNOC the remaining 60%.
19. Wang Yilin
Chairman, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)
With chairman Wang Yilin at the helm of affairs, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is aggressively expanding in the region. In December, CNPC signed an agreement with Mubadala Petroleum to foster greater co-operation between the two companies in the oil and gas exploration and production sector. The agreement identifies potential areas for collaboration in the upstream oil and gas sector outside of the UAE and, more specifically, new and existing projects including onshore conventional projects, offshore projects and LNG projects.
Besides, CNPC is also in talks with Saudi Aramco to sell a minority refinery share and some 300 retail outlets. The deal has been valued at $1bn to $1.5bn, although final valuations, assets and stakes are subject to change, media reports said.
Earlier in 2014, as part of its global expansion campaign, CNPC had set up a joint venture company with ADNOC – named Al Yassat Company – to produce and export oil from Abu Dhabi. As with a typical join venture with ADNOC, operating in the ADCO concession, CNPC owns 40% of the stake, with the majority 60% being controlled by the owner.
CNPC has expanded over the past decade to over 30 countries around the globe to help secure essential supplies of the oil and gas that China needs to sustain its economic growth.
20. Stephen Lloyd
Senior Vice President and General Manager – UAE, Oxy Oil and Gas
Stephen Lloyd is the senior vice president and general manager of Oxy Oil and Gas – UAE, an affiliate of American oil and gas major Occidental Petroleum Corporation. Lloyd is responsible for all UAE operations, including joint venture oversight of the Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company or Al Hosn Gas. He also has oversight for the UAE Human Resources, Information Technology and Finance departments. With Lloyd leading the way, Oxy is expected to continue funding growth opportunities in both Oman and Qatar, and to develop the Al Hosn gas project in Abu Dhabi.
Oxy’s oil production in Oman has tripled over the last ten years, making the company the largest independent oil producer in the Sultanate. Oxy produced a total of 800mn barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) over the past thirty years, the executive said. Last year alone production in the Sultanate totalled around 83 MMboe, 27,000 boe per day.
ADNOC too has signed a technical agreement with Occidental Petroleum to develop the al-Hail and Ghasha oilfields. ‘ADNOC and Oxy will cooperate in carrying out a number of activities that reach up to $500mn in investment’, ADNOC says.
