Building a High Performance Culture in a New Oil and Gas Joint Venture

H. Zubari¹, M. Al Saad¹, and F. Alobaidli¹

Abstract

Tatweer Petroleum is a four-year old Joint Venture between three dissimilar entities that entered into a Development and Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA) with the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The parties to this agreement are Mubadala Petroleum (UAE), Nogaholding (Bahrain) and Occidental Petroleum (USA). As a result, Tatweer has the privilege of accessing expertise and tap into the resources of the three partners whenever and wherever needed which is a major asset to the organization. Another benefit of such a partnership is the cultural diversity that Tatweer currently enjoys with employees from over 40 different nationalities with different experiences and affiliations. While adding great value, these cultural and organizational diversities create a challenge for Human Resources to manage in light of the DPSA’s requirements to increase localization percentage to 80% in a relatively short period of time without jeopardizing the quality of resources in the organization. As such, training and development, technology transfer and talent management have become the three key challenges as we work to build a high performance culture in Tatweer.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90188 ©GEO-2014, 11th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition, 10-12 March 2014, Manama, Bahrain