RIYADH: People’s development and leading in technology serve as pillars of success for a center of excellence, according to a Saudi Aramco official.
Speaking in a panel discussion titled “Regional centers of excellence: investing in capacity building. Key focus areas” on the second day of the Future Minerals Forum taking place in Riyadh, the oil giant’s vice president of the characterization and field development geosciences, Saleh M. Saleh, explained how the two factors contributed to Saudi Aramco’s success.
This falls in line with the company’s vision of maximizing income, facilitating the sustainable and diversified expansion of the Kingdom’s economy, and enabling a globally competitive and vibrant energy sector.
“These are two capabilities that were very successful for us and we think they will be, of course, certainly adding value to build on,” Saleh said.
With regard to people’s development, the official said: “Saudi Aramco has invested a lot in ensuring that we have a skillful (and) competent workforce and one of the most rewarding programs in the company’s history was really the ‘Hire to Retire.’”
He went on to explain that the program takes the best students in high school and sponsors them through local and global universities and then continues once they are back to receiving focused training to accelerate their development.
With regard to technology, Saleh disclosed: “Last year, we celebrated the granting of more than 1,000 patents, as the largest number in our company history but also for any energy company.”
Also speaking during the same panel discussion, the director general at the Geological Survey of Finland, Kimmo Tiilikainen, shed light on what needs to be done to expand the mineral sector and exploration.
“If we need to expand the mineral sector and exploration, it means that we need more professionals; so, we need to increase the education of geosciences around the region,” he stressed.
Tiilikainen added: “It’s not only the number of professionals, we also need to raise the skill level to use modern technologies and the methods that data science offers today so that we can deliver more information and more data useful for the investors.”
Moreover, during the same discussion, Juan Carlos Jobet, visiting fellow of the Center on Global Energy Policy at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, also clarified why mining firms should not operate in isolation.
“Mining companies tend to operate in isolation, not coordinating their efforts very much and I think when we talk about innovation and technology development, operating in isolation is not very efficient,” he underlined.
The Future Minerals Forum is not just a platform for discussion but a beacon for global cooperation in the production of critical minerals essential for transforming the energy sector.
Key discussions during the two-day event are expected to revolve around the potential of the major mineral-rich super region, with government representatives and officials from multilateral organizations like the UN and the World Bank, alongside trade and business associations, exchanging ideas and experiences.
