Oil and gas projects are becoming increasingly resource-intensive and operate on an unforgiving schedule, where delays cost millions of dollars. Mobilizing thousands of people around the world poses unique and often location-specific challenges. Global mobility services (GMS) mitigate these challenges by ensuring a safe and effi cient relocation process.

Air Energi’s dedicated global mobility team (GMT) delivers GMS via 35 offi ces in 40 countries worldwide. The GMT is made up of highly trained professionals in the oil and gas sector and has in-depth knowledge of how the industry functions. This ensures a total personnel solution delivered by people who understand the situation and needs of both clients and candidates.

Global mobility is now an essential element in ensuring project success. Each case requires an individual approach to address any cultural, logistical or personal challenges that mobilized personnel encounter when on assignment.

Challenge—war zone illness
A cost engineer in Basra, Iraq, was submitted to an SOS clinic in 2013. Due to the severity of the engineer’s condition, he required immediate medical treatment. As the camp facilities were not sufficient to treat him, staff requested that he be medically evacuated to Dubai.

Contact was made by team to the engineer’s medical insurer, who liaised with the medical staff at the Basra clinic. Both medical teams agreed that the engineer was stable enough to fly unaccompanied to Dubai the next day.

A business-class fl ight was booked to ensure he traveled in comfort, while a GMT representative and driver were arranged to meet him on arrival and transport him to the hospital, where he underwent surgery.

The company’s GMT communicated updates on his condition to the engineer’s medical insurer, the client and his family. When the engineer was discharged, a company driver and representative drove him to a local hotel, where he recovered. Ultimately, the consultant was declared fit for work after passing a medical examination and stayed in Dubai to complete the remainder of his rotation.

Challenge—turbulent regions
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is home to the Papuan Basin, one of the most explored and developed hydrocarbon plays in the region. However, despite the government’s goodwill toward foreign workers, it remains a turbulent region; crime is widespread, basic amenities are dubious and contracting a life-threatening disease is a signifi cant threat.

A $19 billion LNG project is currently underway with 6.6 MM tonnes expected to be exported each year. The project requires a worldwide contingent workforce of 250 personnel to be assigned at any one time in addition to 9,000 locals. The operator tasked the GMT with providing support for personnel needing to enter and exit the country safely and compliantly.

PNG immigration and labor legislation is complex, with the application process for a working resident employment entry permit and visa requiring 10 forms. In addition, medical documentation is required, including a full medical examination, HIV testing and a chest X-ray.

The GMT took responsibility for arranging all paperwork to ensure that mobilized personnel were compliant with legal, fiscal and immigration regulations. Compliance to local legislation and client policy is critical when moving personnel around the world. Air Energi developed an efficient and wholly compliant mobilization process, with every consultant arriving ready to commence work immediately. The GMT successfully obtained more than 1,000 PNG work permits and visas for more than 30 different client organizations, all within challenging time frames.

Given that the operator did not have a local presence in PNG, the GMT set up an office in the country’s capital of Port Moresby. Otherwise it would have been extremely difficult to mobilize the vast number of personnel and provide the necessary support.

Each year the operator completes an audit of its suppliers, randomly selecting contracted personnel to ensure they are compliant to its processes, and Air Energi is the only tier-one supplier to have maintained 100% compliance.

The GMT’s immigration practices also were recognized with the Good Corporate Citizen Award. Issued by the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations, the award recognized Air Energi for its commitment to employing and training Papua New Guineans as well as compliance with labor and immigration laws. This also means the GMT can apply for priority five-year work permits rather than the standard limit of three years.

Challenge—multiple locations
Air Energi’s GMT was contracted to supply all personnel and associated mobilization services to support a $3.5 billion expansion project in the Central North Sea. The project called for coordination of multinational consultants across seven locations in five countries.

The global scope of the development meant that projects were running simultaneously in Italy, Spain and Dubai. Processes for work permits, visas and tax compliance had to be established and synchronized globally for successful project delivery.

Due to multiple project locations, strict compliance in the host countries was critical to ensuring the competency of personnel and to avoid delays. Essential areas included immigration paperwork, medicals and appropriate qualifications.

Recruitment commenced three weeks after the company was awarded the contract, meaning the GMT had a short time frame to organize the mobilization of hundreds of personnel around the world.

To ensure successful mobilization, the company appointed a dedicated account manager to work with the operator’s leadership team. In keeping with local content regulations, 30% of staff at the sites in Italy and Spain were sourced locally, while in Dubai staff were mobilized from Singapore and the Philippines.

The company mobilized 426 consultants for the client and delivered the full support service required for successful completion of the development. The project came online as scheduled, with its timely success driven in part by the performance of GMS.

Set procedures and policies delivered by the GMT meant that the standard of service received by project personnel was the same in every location.

At the Cadiz site in Spain, a high volume of technicians were mobilized in a short time frame. The company managed all project logistics for personnel, negotiating accommodation, booking and coordinating all rotational flights and twice-daily buses to transport personnel from the hotel to the site and recruiting a bilingual U.K. expatriate as an onsite coordinator to address any language barriers.

Collaboration with the client was also necessary to make arrangements for those personnel without mandatory qualifications and certifications to be compliant. For example, when appointing consultants for the offshore hookup of the new platforms in the North Sea, 30% of candidates had no prior offshore experience and so had to be trained and certified prior to deployment.

All consultants were compliant with legal, fiscal and immigration legislation, and each individual experienced a seamless entry and exit from the region.

The model of appointing personnel to oil and gas projects is evolving. By approaching global mobility from a strategic perspective, the company’s GMT recognizes, anticipates and mitigates challenges while identifying the right services, needs and realistic costs that together are critical for successful completion of a project.

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