BP is now only a few months away from planned sanction of the Greater Plutonio project, a deep-water development off the coast of Angola in Africa. Oil production from Greater Plutonio is expected to start by early 2007.
Historically the oil industry has relied heavily on expatriate operations staff to work in Angola. BP aims to minimize this reliance, and has set up a progressive local recruitment and development programme for production operation technicians.
The recruitment process was designed using experience from other parts of BP and to take account of the diverse educational backgrounds of candidates from all parts of Angola. The entire process was carried out in Portuguese, the national language of Angola, to ensure that selection was based on technical ability and not ability to speak English. Application forms were made available in employment offices in Luanda, Angola’s capital city, and elsewhere in Angola. The selection process focused on verifying both the candidates’ existing technical ability and their longer term potential.
Following the recruitment process, participants attend an initial one-year training course at the Angolan National Petroleum Institute (INP). The course was developed in conjunction with the INP and ExxonMobil and teaches HSE, technical and English-language skills. A second vocational phase then takes place in South Africa, based partly at our jointly owned refinery in Durban and partly at one of South Africa’s academic institutions. Finally the participants will be given hands-on operational experience in one of our worldwide operations, before starting work on the planned Greater Plutonio production facility.
Thirty-six Angolans are currently participating in the programme. Four of the participants are female and they have all been recruited from a range of regions and ethnic backgrounds. Based on the success of the programme, a third group of approximately 20 trainees are being recruited to start in 2003, and another group is planned for 2004.