Maersk Oil: Number of Qatari employees on the rise

Maersk Oil Qatar, the country’s largest offshore oil producer, held its annual Qatarization awards ceremony this week, to recognise the people and initiatives that have supported the company’s efforts to hire and develop the nation’s future Qatari leaders.

In his opening address Sheikh Faisal bin Fahad Al-Thani, Deputy Managing Director of Maersk Oil Qatar said: “The recruitment, retention and development of Qatari nationals is of utmost importance to Maersk Oil. As the operator of Qatar’s largest offshore oilfield Al Shaheen, which contributes around 40 per cent of the country’s oil production, we have a responsibility to ensure the sustainable development of this important national asset. We are firmly committed to providing the best career development opportunities for nationals, and to supporting this country’s future development under the National Vision 2030.”

The company has said it has made significant progress towards these goals following the introduction of a new Qatarization Strategy in 2014, which has helped to boost Qatari employees in Maersk Oil Qatar by 12 per cent compared with the previous year.

As the company explains, the strategy focuses not only on hiring nationals, but critically on developing leadership capacity via mentoring and bespoke training courses, plus the provision of further educational opportunities such as MBAs to employees. As a result of these efforts, Maersk Oil Qatar had a headcount of 215 Qatari nationals at the end of 2014.

Sheikh Jassim Al-Thani, Maersk Oil Qatar ‘s Head of Qatarization, said: “We’ve applied several initiatives to support our recruitment, retention and employee development efforts. In particular we’ve introduced a two-year Qatari Development Programme, which was developed following an exhaustive 12-month study, encompassing best practice analysis and employee surveys. The results helped to create were a programme that is providing faster, more-structured career development that bridges the gap between the academic environment and the skills needed in the workplace.”