On the sidelines of the Saudi Maritime Congress, which kicks off in Dammam today, Fahad M. Abdul Kareem, VP of Industrial Services with Saudi Aramco, discusses how the marine department’s policy and strategy align with the company’s overall sustainability goals.
With over 2,000 visitors expected at the 2022 event, Saudi Maritime Congress is believed to be the largest gathering of maritime and logistics industry professionals in the Kingdom.
Kareem was appointed as Saudi Aramco’s vice president of Industrial Services on April 1, 2022, following an assignment as executive director of Industrial Services since November 2020. Al Abdul Kareem has wide experience in upstream, government relations, and international operations.
Oil & Gas Middle East: How is Aramco’s track record of innovation demonstrated by the work of the marine department?
Al Abdul Kareem: Everything starts with our employees and contractors. They are encouraged to submit their own ideas and thoughts to Aramco’s innovation portal. These are then evaluated to see if they have the potential to add value to our operations. Financial, environmental, safety, productivity and other benefits are taken into consideration during the process.
The marine department has an outstanding record in the number of ideas submitted and implemented. For example, last year marine employees and contractors submitted thousands of ideas (almost six ideas per person), many of which have already been implemented.
Oil & Gas Middle East: How does the marine department’s policy and strategy align with Saudi Aramco’s overall sustainability goals as outlined in the company’s sustainability report?
Al Abdul Kareem: We have undertaken a number of initiatives to support broader corporate goals outlined in our first sustainability report published earlier this year. These have included the Contractor Well-being Program, the formation of the Circular Economy (CE) team, which aims to support our improved environmental performance, as well as the voluntary application of environmental accreditation for the marine fleet.
Oil & Gas Middle East: How do you attract talent and invest in human capital development in this area?
Al Abdul Kareem: We strongly believe in attracting and developing the most diverse talents with a wide range of skills and helping them develop further through multiple programs and work assignments.
More broadly it is important to have a respectful and open work culture which promotes equality and in turn, drives productivity, innovation, and employee engagement.
The localization of the workforce is a major part of preparing a solid foundation for the future. We also have an obligation to encourage educational institutions to provide training in the specialisms that will be needed in the future. For example, we have partnered with the National Maritime Academy (NMA) to localize industrial diving training under the “Marine Diving Academy” initiative.
Oil & Gas Middle East: How are you gearing up to meet new environmental regulations and the challenges of decarbonisation?
Al Abdul Kareem: We create value through the circular management of natural resources and production of materials, and where possible, we try to unlock economic opportunities through local partnerships.
The CE program has established an operational excellence process and framework to establish an integrated CE system, which delivers resilient solutions for sustainability efforts and productivity.
So far, we are in the process of implementing 17 CE initiatives. These include the offshore waste management program to recycle waste produced from offshore activities (thousands of tons were recycled since the start of the program), hybrid vessels, automated fuel management systems and digitalised platforms to further optimize our operations.
