OREANDA-NEWS. The Second Omani Petrochemicals Roundtable Meeting, hosted once more by Orpic, was held recently at the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort, Muscat.

The petrochemicals roundtable meeting was attended by His Excellency Salim Al Aufi, The Under Secretary for the Ministry of Oil and Gas, and CEOs and senior executives from the Petrochemicals sector in Oman including Mr. Mulham Al Jarf, Deputy CEO of Oman Oil Company, Mr. Nabil Al Ghassani, CEO of Takamul, Mr. Musab Al Mahruqi, CEO of Orpic, Mr. Said Al Maawali, VP Petchem and & Business Development at OTI, Mr. Jacobus Nieuwenhuijze, Project Director at Duqm Refinery, and Nicolas Barakat, CEO of Octal. Dr. Abdulwahab Al Sadoun, Secretary General of the Gulf Petrochemical and Chemical Association, was also present.

Topics of conversation included petrochemical development opportunities, feedstock supply, global and national economic and industrial trends. Whilst discussions revolved around value addition, sustainable growth and social responsibility, an overriding priority of the meeting was to focus on the future of the Omani petrochemicals industry based on reaching out to new markets as well as applying innovation in order to move forward into specialties and differentiated products in the sector. Knowledge transfer, creation of jobs, building on market driven developments and supportive infrastructure were high on the agenda with agreements to continue the work started at this meeting.

Nofal Al Saidi, Orpic's GM - Human Resource Services, presented a case study on Orpic's talent management programme in the light of the transformation, fuelled by its schedule of major projects, that the company will undergo between now and 2018. Within that period it is anticipated that the company will increase its number of employees from 1,600 to around 3,000.

Commenting on the significance of the human capital issue across the industry over the coming years, Mr. Al Saidi noted, "In terms of human capital the next few years are critical for the petrochemical sector and the broader oil and gas industry in Oman. It's vital that there is a robust flow of Omani talent emerging from the education system as committed and ready as it can be to face the challenges and opportunities presented by an abundance of projects and the strong industry growth that is predicted. From our side we need to be able to effectively manage the inflow in order to ensure that those who join can maximize their impact as rapidly as possible."

The Roundtable Meeting is planned be held annually to discuss sustainable growth and opportunities in the petrochemicals industry as well as further enhancing the relationships between government, the petrochemicals companies and public sector.