FORESIGHT OFFSHORE DRILLING
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etween mid-2014 and early 2016, the oil industry experienced one of the sharpest downturns in its modern history. 70 percent price drops sent shockwaves throughout the global market as booming US oil production, receding geopolitical concerns and shifting OPEC policies collided with deteriorating demand prospects. Indeed, the market has since begun to recover, and confidence has bolstered. Yet a consciousness in regard to price volatility remains ever present amongst industry stakeholders, pushing developers to take a more innovative stance in ensuring that current financial hurdles can be overcome. One company embracing this change is Dubai-based Foresight Off-
shore Drilling, a division of Foresight Group International Limited. A firm with nearly three decades of expertise in offering full service offshore drilling solutions across India and the Middle East through its rigs and expert crews, it is proactively pursuing a revitalised strategy, becoming more agile and cost effective in a multitude of ways. “The downturn in 2014 created an exciting opportunity – an opportunity to become more innovative in how we use data, technology and collaborative efforts to drive improvements in performance that support a lower cost environment,” affirms John Wishart, the organisation’s Chief Operating Officer, who joined Foresight in 2017 having spent time working in China.
THE AMER MARITIME TRAINING ACADEMY Much of Foresight Offshore Drilling’s extensive training programmes take place at the Amer Maritime Training Academy (AMTA). Established by the company’s Founder Dr Ravi Kumar Mehrotra CBE as a not-for-profit drilling and maritime centre, it is accredited by the International Association of Drilling Contractors and continues to expand the courses it provides for those interested in the offshore oil and gas sector. To date, over 3,000 cadets have graduated from AMTA, with plans to increase its capacity to 750 students per year and establish a Mumbai branch that will make it easier to train crews local to the region.
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A PEOPLE-FIRST POLICY Unsurprisingly, undertaking such an evolution has been no mean feat, the company already operating in a highly complex, niche field of work. Yet the organisation has been successful in doing so, the COO pointing to its staff as crucial to these efforts. “We acknowledge how crucial our personnel are to our ability to achieve enhanced performance goals,” he declares. “Our crews are experienced and take ownership of every task and every process involved in the drilling operation, and it is this that contributes to our industry-leading 99.7 percent uptimes.” In every sense, Foresight’s employee base acts as a crucial differentiator for the company, something both appreciated and actively maintained by its leadership team, including Wishart. “We truly recognise that people are at the heart of everything we do,” he states, pointing to the salary, private healthcare, life assurance and discretionary bonus schemes as just some of the comprehensive benefits packages offered to staff as part of its talent retention efforts. Arguably the most successful employee satisfaction drives, however, come from the family-centric culture that the business has cultivated over many years. Striving to take care of its people, emphasising equality, diversity and safety, the company’s staff are empowered in turn to take care of Foresight’s customers and assets to the best of their ability. “To date, we have completed nine million man hours without a lost time incident – a 14-year endeavour,” Wishart reveals. “Through training efforts, regular safety drills and extensive practice we do everything we can to ensure all our crew members are equipped with the right skills, supervision and guidance they need to work safely and securely.”