Oman’s Redeployment Strategy has saved 2,100 jobs from redundancy, according to officials.
The Oman Society for Petroleum Services (OPAL) launched the strategy at the end of the last year in a bid to protect national jobs in the wake of $30 oil.
The strategy, previously dubbed a “safety net” for national oil workers, mandates a series of steps are carried out before redundancy.
For example, if a contractor is forced to cut staff due to a cancelled contract or project delay it must first consider redeployment within its own remit. It must complete due diligence to find jobs for its Omani workforce on its other contracts.
If that fails, the contractor must then approach the operator it was working with.
The operator must confirm the contractor has completed its due diligence before trying to find work for the ‘at-risk’ workers among its other contractors and contracts – this is considered the second level of redeployment.
If that fails, the case is referred to the Technical Committee, which is supervised by the Ministry of Oil and Gas.
The committee then checks due diligence was thoroughly carried out by both the contractor and operator.
The committee is also responsible for then examining other contracts across the sector as means of redeployment. If a match is found at any of the three levels, the workers are then retrained, if needed, and redeployed.
If all avenues have been exhausted, the employees are released with compensation paid for by the original contractor. The strategy was built specifically for Omani nationals and does protect international staff, who would be made redundant in the first instance.
So far the scheme has successfully redeployed 2,100 workers.
The chief executive of OPAL, Musallam al Mandhry, told the Oman Observer: “What’s emerging is that the Redeployment Strategy is indeed working.
“Over the last few months, we have around 2,100 Omani oilfield staff brought to the table (as potential layoffs). So far, we’ve been successful in addressing their employment situations, with all of them having since been redeployed within other oil and gas companies.”
OPAL has been utilising the strategy since November.
However, the chief executive said planning began nearly a year ago.
“In fact, we had been working on the Redeployment Strategy since July in anticipation that the oil price slump would have an impact on national employment in this sector,” he added.
“This was based on learnings gained from the previous oil price crisis. This time around we expected the crisis to have a longer-term impact; hence the strategy to avert Omani job losses.”
Earlier this month, the Scottish government confirmed nearly 10,000 North Sea jobs had been axed in the wake of Brent’s steady decline.
Last week, Wood Group confirmed it would cut contractor rates for a third time.
