Smith, who has been promoted to the top position as CEO since January 1st 2012, in his maiden interview with 24X7 News Bahrain said that ambitious offshore drilling project would be completed this year.
In addition, Smith said, the execution of the new pipeline project from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain is expected to be started towards the end of the year.
“We are expecting the start of execution of this $350 million project this year as it seen an important step towards achieving the national targets.”
The Bapco CEO said that once the new pipeline project is completed then the existing old pipeline between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain would be decommissioned as part of the strategy.
“The changing urbanisation patters in Bahrain has necessitated Bapco to go for the new pipeline project under sea as the squeezing land and rapidly growing built areas pose a real challenge that how to enhance the pipeline network if needed for a company like Bapco,” he said.
However, he said, that the pipeline extension project would be completed in a stipulated time frame.
On the question of new recruitments, Smith said Bapco would be recruiting a lot of Bahrainis as trainees this year. “We are expecting 80 to 100 as a new blood to be recruited this year and majority will be locals with around 15% from the expatriates,” he said.
“Bapco keeps around 15% expatriates for such expertise which we don’t have locally and can be repatriated easily once the specialised jobs are over,” he said.
Explaining the salient features of Bapco’s succession plan, Smith said that like other industry peers Bapco has had very effective succession plan developed on the lines of developing leadership and identifying the key jobs within the organisation.
“Bapco spent two years in preparing the master plan for the modernisation of the $8 billion refinery project. This being the most crucial project, needs a peer review of and we expect this can happen by the end of March this year. The peer view is seen as vital tool to assess the feasibility of the entire project and get a second opinion from a group of experts on the all vital aspect of each stage,” Smith explained.
“Accomplishing gigantic tasks like modernisation of the refinery by implementing the master plan through 2018 will serve as a top priority. The refinery project will be not an easy job but with the support of the team it will happen in time as conceived in the master plan of the refinery modernisation,” Smith explained.
Gordon Smith, who has been promoted to the new position of Chief Executive of Bapco on January 1st, said that he was excited about the new role and preparing himself for new opportunities and challenges ahead.
Smith said that the year 2012 would be tough given the conditions of the global oil market trends.
Smith has been Deputy Chief Executive Refining and Marketing and has a background of extensive oil industry management experience at Chevron, USA, and has led successful business turnarounds, plant commissioning and refinery operations around the world.
Earlier, Bapco announced that it had exceeded its planned crude throughput target for 2011 set at the beginning of the year despite some interruptions to operation during the unrest period in February and March 2011.
Bapco also recorded the highest ever monthly average crude run of 271,000 barrels per day in November 2011. This is all a tremendous achievement, which is a testament to the hard work, diligence and dedication of all Bapco staff and contractors, in ensuring that the refinery processed safely the maximum possible crude rate.
“We take full pride in this achievement which reflects the dedication of our employees and contractors,” Smith said, while endorsing the landmark accomplishments of Bapco.