Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

BP and SOCAR signed three cooperation agreements in Baku on November 14 to support plans for developing Azerbaijani staff workers involved in BP-operated projects in Azerbaijan.

The projects include the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Shah Deniz, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC), and South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) projects.

The documents reaffirmed the two organizations' commitment to cooperating closely on the nationalization of BP's staff, and training professionals specializing in petroleum disciplines, and the workforce involved in oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan.

After the signing ceremony, Birrell and Abdullayev made speeches.

In his speech, Birell said that as operator of Azerbaijan's major oil and gas projects, BP has always found a role to play in developing human resources specialized in Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector in accordance with the international standards.

"Since the early days of our presence in the Caspian region, we have made it one of our priorities to train and develop nationals, so that they are capable of competing with international experts and taking over senior roles from world-class BP experts," he said.

Birell went on to note that BP has continued to use all the existing tools to attract the best local talents both within and outside Azerbaijan.

"As a result, since the beginning of 2013, we have recruited a record number of Azerbaijani nationals; more than 100 experienced hires, 100 technicians, 85 Challengers and 50 interns," he said.

According to him, today BP employs about 2,800 Azerbaijani nationals. In total, 84 percent of BP's permanent professionals in Azerbaijan are nationals and many of them are in lead positions.

"We have even bigger plans for the future," he said. "In particular, we have developed a nationalization plan for the 2014 - 2018. It targets to reach 90 percent of nationalization of professional staff by the end of 2018. This envisages nationalizing the majority of professional roles that are currently occupied by the expatriate staff."

Speaking at the event, Abdullayev said that Azerbaijan is currently facing a staff shortage due to the implementation of many projects. In this regard, great attention has been paid to professional personnel training since 2005. More than 300 Azerbaijani students who are now working in the country have attended 20 world universities since 2005.

"Moreover, a scholarship program which brings together 1,500 students is being implemented in the country," Abdullayev said. "Some 150 people are currently working at SOCAR."

According to him, the main goal is to solve the problem of staff shortage and minimize the involvement of foreign personnel.

Under the agreement on cooperation between BP and SOCAR in the area of nationalizing the staff involved in BP-operated projects BP commits itself to continuing to develop local professionals so that they can take over the maximum number of jobs within BP.

BP also undertakes the implementation of a five-year nationalization plan for the years 2014-2018, including progress of nationalization process, a revised recruitment strategy, and various learning and development initiatives.

BP and SOCAR will continue to work together to arrange recruitment campaigns and educational and training programs to support the development of national professionals in the oil and gas industry.

Another document was a Memorandum of Understanding with SOCAR on cooperation in the area of training national workforce at the Gobustan Regional Training Center. This agreement commits BP to supporting vocational and technician discipline training for 100 representatives of the local communities residing in the neighborhood of the Sangachal Terminal - the Sangachal, Umid, Azimkend and Gobustan settlements.

BP will cover the tuition and other expenses related to training people at the Gobustan Regional Training Center.

The third document signed on November 14 was a Memorandum of Understanding with Baku Higher Oil School on cooperation in the area of education. Under this agreement BP commits itself to engaging with the students of Baku Higher Oil School in various programs, initiatives, development activities, and delivering business lectures at the institution.