Weatherford in KSA

Geryk Thomas, VP and general manager in Saudi Arabia explains how the company is delivering results with local talent.

Weatherford is one of the world's largest upstream oilfield service companies, operating in more than 100 countries worldwide, with over 730 offices. Saudi Arabia is one of its key markets, and as such Weatherford have a firmly established base in the country and substantial investments planned in the coming years.

The company has operated in Saudi Arabia for four decades and is organised around three main divisions: The Contract Drilling Rigs division, which has been operational for 15 years; Traditional Product and Services Lines, which operates under a joint venture (JV) with the Al-Rushaid Group since 1979; and finally Non-Traditional Products and Service Lines, under a Weatherford Branch company and several agency agreements.

"Our greatest challenge in KSA is to ensure that we provide the specialised tools, equipment and personnel that meet customer requirements dependably and consistently. In addition to a comprehensive quality management system, we closely monitor our performance at all levels and employ a wide range of key performance indicators that provide specific feedback as to how we are performing in each of our product and service lines. This information serves as the catalyst for corrective actions and continuous improvement in Saudi Arabia," says Geryk Thomas, vice president and general manager, Weatherford Saudi Arabia.

Another formidable challenge is the recruitment and retention of highly skilled and competent personnel, explains Thomas.

"Historically, many oil service companies in Saudi have relied to a great extent on imported skilled labour due to the mistaken belief that Saudis were simply not available. Civic and social awareness as well as practical business considerations led Weatherford Saudi and Weatherford Al-Rushaid to aggressively embrace and pursue our policy of recruiting and training up locally sourced talent. We are extremely proud of the success of our Saudization initiative and the percentages of Saudis in skilled labour and management positions continues to climb at a pace that is well above the industry norm."

Now that the oil price has dropped, Weatherford expects to see a minor reduction in demand for contract drilling rigs in the Kingdom, although the demand is more elastic than one would expect.

"We are anticipating some reduction in contract drilling rigs in Saudi, although it would be incorrect to assume that the reductions are tied exclusively to the drop in oil price. Some rigs are at the end of their contracts while others will be replaced due to technical requirements. Experience has shown that the industry in Saudi is far less reactionary in terms of knee jerk responses to the unpredictable rise and fall of commodity prices."

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