All in a day’s work

Ever wondered what it’s like to work for Saudi Aramco? O&G catches up with Senior Workover Engineer Khalifa Al-Amri to find out more.

Can you describe what your role involves?
My role involves a variety of workover jobs that range from simple changing and replacements of defective electrical submersible pumps to tasks as complicated as plugging a well and drilling it. Most workover wells are geared for re-entries as their technologies have advanced greatly during recent years. Many rigs are assigned to do such jobs in order to save assets that don't produce anymore. With a short drill these assets can be put back on line. The most common work we do is re-entries – all types; long radius, medium radius and short radius re-entries. What we are mainly using to carry out this work is existing technologies that have been improved or upgraded. In the past we could not do as many re-entries as we do now because we were limited depending on the size of the well and of the equipment. We are now able to achieve nearly all requirements using technology such as expandable tubulars, off bottom cementing equipment and ultra slim hole equalising tools. The great advancement has been slimmer drills.

What are the biggest challenges that you face currently in your work?
From an operational point of view, I would say the biggest challenge is the competency of manpower. Also the lead-time required for certain types of equipment to be manufactured. Different wells have different designs and we work on wells that have existed for 60 to 70 years. Every time a well gets scheduled for workover we have to look at its design and some of the designs are obsolete so we have to come up with a new technology to be adapted in those wells. That requires placing a request and an order for this equipment and it could take a long time until it is available. From the logistical side of the business, the biggest challenges have been the inflated prices we've seen. That affected the prices of paying contractors and paying for equipment. Those prices were inflated and now, even with the low oil prices, prices are still inflated.

What about the challenge in terms of human capital? How challenging is it to recruit people to carry out workover engineering work?
It's hard to find people nowadays with the right skillset. We’re putting the new graduates through intensive training programmes to allow them to learn the basics of running rigs – whether it’s a drilling rig or a workover rig. We have adopted a programme called the Accelerated Training Programme. It's a one-year programme with a rotation between engineering and operations. It's especially suitable, not for petroleum engineers but for mechanical and chemical engineers, because they get to become familiar with the equipment involved. Another important programme is Saudi-isation which has been very valuable. You won't find any non-Saudi's in management. There aren't more than 25 to 30 percent of expatriates in any department (at Saudi Aramco).

What are the main health and safety issues you are tackling?
Working in confined spaces in the sea certainly creates its challenges. Accidental gas releases are especially deadly so that has to be taken care of. When you are working on an offshore rig it's important to educate people in safety and they should make it a habit as part of their daily working lives.

What sort of work do you foresee your team doing in the future?
I think we'll be working on more complex wells. The more we advance in technology, the more complex the wells become.