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Petronas teams up with 4 oil and gas firms

By CHOONG EN HAN

han@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has teamed up with four major oil and gas companies to train and develop local talent to serve the industry.

The national oil company yesterday signed four separate memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with oilfield services company Baker Hughes,Kencana Petroleum Bhd, SapuraCrest Petroleum Bhd and French multinational engineering group Technip Geoproduction.

“With the formalising of the collaboration, we hope we can monitor and be in line with the industry needs rather than doing it on our own,” said Petronas human resources management vice-president Juniwati Rahmat Hussin after the signing ceremony.

She noted that the industry was expanding at a rapid rate whereas its talent pool was not expanding as fast.

“We see a lot from the baby boomer generation leaving the industry. However, the Generations X and Y just don't make up enough, especially in terms of experience and competencies, to fill the gap,” Juniwati said.

Previously, students from Petronas' learning institutions are only limited to six to eight months of internships in the company. However, with the MoUs in place, they can now participate and gain a wider experience from different companies in the industry.

“There are positions to be filled but these are still vacant. The problem is actually to get the right talent from the market. Something has to be done in a very structured and collaborative manner.

“Although the industry players require the same kind of talent, we would not want to be stepping on each other and poaching each other's staff. That is why I think we should come together to train the talents that we need,” Juniwati added.

She said the MoUs would provide both the industry and learning institutions a much needed platform to identify, strategise and undertake programmes and activities to develop the industry's future skilled workforce.

The scope of the MoUs will include a diverse range of collaboration including joint research and development, staff attachment opportunities, information-sharing session, and chair sponsorship.

It will also cover student internship and sponsorship, adjunct lecturer programme, supervision of postgraduate students and technical trainees and the setting up of a learning facility.

Programmes and activities will be conducted at Petronas's learning institutions including Petronas Management Training Centre, University Teknologi Petronas (UTP), Institut Teknologi Petroleum Petronas (INSTEP) and Akademi Laut Malaysia.

“Petronas has embarked on a journey to become a regional education and learning hub for the oil and gas industry by 2020. Due to this, we are pursuing more industry players to facilitate stronger engagements between the industry stakeholders and learning institutions towards creating a knowledgeable and competent workforce,” Juniwati said.

She added that a steering committee would be set up to oversee the implementation of the MoUs. “We have been working on this for more than a year and I hope this signing will be the beginning of a very interesting journey,” she said.

Last July, Petronas and international oil and gas facilities service provider Petrofac signed an MoU with similar intent. It involves a technical training partnership between Petrofac Training Services and INSTEP to develop competency-based training for operations and maintenance personnel, as well as lecture and seminar programmes with the UTP.

Technip Malaysia managing director Edgar Pushparatnam said talents nowadays need not only be competent but also trained in new equipments. This is compounded by the fact that new technologies and systems are constantly being introduced in the industry.

He said Technip developed the first deepwater field in the country five years ago and it was currently embarking on its third deepwater field in Malaysia.

“The expertise still doesn't exist in Malaysia. That is why we are bringing in the technology and training the local talents to be competent in the latest development in the industry.

“People need to know that this is not going to be a sunset industry. Although trends now are looking at alternative energy, this industry will continue with the advancement in technology and productivity,” he said.