People's Daily Online, Dubai, January 10 (Reporter Guan Kejiang) Recently, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Onshore Oil Company held a team building activity on Saadiya Island, inviting about 300 employees of China Petroleum Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. (CPECC) Gulf Region Company to participate, and international employees from the United Arab Emirates, China and other countries held fun competitions such as black boxes, "Build My Car", pipeline table tennis, and "Blind Listen to Me". This is the first time that Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has hosted a team building event in more than 10 years as the owner, in cooperation with the Chinese side.
The owner takes the lead in team building?
The owner takes the lead in inviting contractors to participate in team building, which is rare in the industry. "There is no love for no reason", why did Abu Dhabi National Oil Company come? It turned out that since last year, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Onshore Oil Company has introduced the design-procurement-construction-management (EPCM) model in engineering contracting for the first time, and CPECC Gulf Branch has become the first winning bidder.
Currently, CPEC Gulf has two EPCM projects: "Artificial Intelligence P5" – the goal of increasing production by 25 per day through the expansion of the Abu Dhabi Bab and Buhasa facilities70,000 barrels**. The project is the largest and most advanced petroleum engineering project in the history of the UAE, with a construction value of approximately US$2 billion; Another take-off project involves the renovation of seven oilfield facilities.
Shi Meng is the Chinese manager of the Takeoff project. He said metaphorically, the EPC model is also called a turnkey project, just like buying a house, the homeowner spends money to ask the decoration company to pay an all-inclusive price, and the design, procurement, and construction are completed by the decoration company, and the homeowner is delivered after completion; In the EPCM model, the decoration company is like a big housekeeper, helping the homeowner to come up with ideas and manage in all aspects of design, procurement and construction, and the homeowner designates different engineering companies to complete the decoration.
The change in roles has brought about a change in the relations between China and Argentina. In the team building activity, Shi Meng and Jaber, the project manager of the Arab side, were divided into the same group. Shi Meng and Jaber are old acquaintances. "In the past, Chinese and Arab project managers often fought for the interests of their respective companies when they met to discuss work. Shi Meng said that now the atmosphere of cooperation between the two sides has completely changed. They team up for the fun game "Build My Car": plastic pipes and fittings of different sizes are shuffled and put in a box, and the team needs to effectively coordinate and build a car according to the drawings. The team was the winner. Sharing his experience of the competition, Jaber said: "In the process of completing the game, the Arab-Chinese team worked together sincerely. In the same way, we will continue to work together in the implementation of the project. ”
To be able to eat 'this crab' is enough to prove that the owner recognizes us".
The change of roles has also brought about a change in the development path of Chinese and Arab enterprises. According to industry analysts, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company hopes to strengthen the control of the design, procurement and construction process through the new model, so as to more effectively promote the project plan; For CPECC companies in the Gulf region, the project risk is reduced because there is no need to invest heavy assets, but the new model puts forward higher requirements for the Chinese side's management capabilities.
Li Jiqing, deputy general manager of CPECC Gulf Area Company and project manager of the "Artificial Intelligence P5" project, said that under the EPC model, the demands of the Chinese side and the owner are different, and the project managers of the two sides often have their own reasons when they meet. Under the EPCM model, the Chinese side and the owner are in the same camp, and both sides have the same goals. He took out the list of meetings for the first week of this month and showed it to reporters, and saw that every morning and afternoon on the list, there were multiple discussions of the Sino-Arab project team, including project risk analysis meetings, procurement-subcontracting meetings, and acceleration plan discussions, with more than 10 participants and more than 30 participants.
Li Jiqing said: "The two project contracting models have different risks and different returns. But in terms of business methods, the biggest difference is management. The project team needs to have in-depth and detailed communication with the owner, which puts forward high requirements for the language, communication, management and other aspects of our personnel. To be able to eat 'this crab' is enough to prove that the owner recognizes us".”
The Middle East market has always been a high-end market for engineering contracting companies, with strict technical standards, contract conditions and project management requirements. Recalling the company's development in the UAE market over the past 15 years, Zhu Jian, general manager of CPECC Gulf Region, was full of emotion: "In 2008, when the company first entered the UAE market, the project had to hire foreign project managers with high salaries due to the lack of management personnel. In 2017, when we began to undertake the construction of the Babu oilfield project, there were still a large number of our managers who could not pass the interview of the Argentine owner. However, we insist on selecting talents and tempering and improving in the post. "In February 2022, the project obtained the provisional acceptance certificate on schedule, and CPECC became the only international energy engineering company to successfully deliver the project to the owner during the pandemic.
At present, most of the department managers and key personnel on our two projects are Chinese personnel. These achievements are due to the fact that the company's headquarters and regional companies have always taken building a world-class engineering company and cultivating world-class engineering talents as their goal, and have made guarantees in the system and mechanism, and a large number of Chinese petroleum engineering management talents who understand business, know foreign languages and are good at communication have been emerging. We will continue to work hard to take the lead in building a world-class regional energy engineering company in the Gulf region. Zhu Jian said.
Arif, vice president of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Onshore Oil Company, said in a previous interview: "China Petroleum Engineering & Construction has strong comprehensive strength, project execution and delivery capabilities, and is one of our most reliable engineering contractors. The two sides trust each other, and the prospects for cooperation will be broader. ”