Globalisation of BSP will pose no threat to local employment
By Malai Hassan Othman 

Going global will be one agenda that Brunei Shell Petroleum Company (BSP) has to address wisely as it strives to reposition itself in the world's increasingly competitive yet uncertain oil and gas market. "This is one issue we are addressing now and debating rigorously, not only in BSP, but hopefully at the Board of Directors level," stated Awang Haji Zainal bin Haji Md Ali, the Deputy Managing Director and Human Resources and Corporate Affairs Director of BSP, yesterday.

He observed that for BSP to go global, there would be benefits but there has to be downside too, in terms of local employment in the lower-skill category.

But one thing is for sure: we would not feel comfortable if globalisation would be at the expense of our already successful localisation programmes, said Haji Zainal, when told that there were apparently some resistance among the BSP employees on the initiative.

On the domestic front, BSP, after a century of exploiting the 'black gold,' has lost its position as the one and only player in the oil and gas industry here when the government formed its own Brunei National Petroleum Company.

Through this company, the government has forged new petroleum and gas ventures with several international players on production-sharing arrangement, which has also provided them with a better platform on which to make deals with other stake holders besides Shell.

Given such a scenario, BSP has made it obvious for the past several years that its focus is on efforts to operate not only more competitively but also more cost-effective.

One of the measures taken was to introduce what it called unmanned 'Smart Oil Well,' which can be remotely operated and controlled from onshore.

Another initiative was to introduce what it called the Global International Desktop, or GID, that would allow some of the key functions of BSP here to be run remotely from Shell offices in the region.

On the topic of local employment, BSP has introduced its so-called Local Contract Employment for the recruitment of lower-skill employees. Under this contract, new recruits are given only two-year term renewable contracts.

On the ground, however, some BSP employees and contractors were not too happy with the new development, especially now as the idea and some plans to go global are being implemented.

"This globalisation thing would mean less opportunities for locals to climb the ladder and even for our local contractors to benefit from," observed several independent observers.

"Perhaps there will not be many jobs available for locals in our oil industry here in the future," they added.

But Awang Haji Zainal disagreed:

"We are not going to put people on the street without jobs. What we hope to see in the future is the recruitment of more smart operators in BSP who are competent in ICT and possess new skills to meet the demand of our future requirements," he added.

He said BSP has sent out a signal to the education sector here, on its future demand for these smart operators regarding this matter.

"What we want is to recruit those with high competency level, especially in science and technology as well as ICT, because in the future BSP would be using much of them in its operation," explained Awang Haji Zainal.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin