Expats number dwindles; Oil sector on road to ‘total’ Kuwaitization
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KUWAIT CITY, June 21: The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) says the number of non- Kuwaiti (expatriates) employees in the oil sector is 2,671, according to the latest official statistic issued following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Al-Anba daily. It explained that the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has the largest number of expatriate workers at the sector level with about 1,832 employees, followed by the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) with 657 expatriate employees, and then the Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Quebec) with 76 expatriate employees. The Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) has about 23 expatriate workers, the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) has 29 expatriate employees, the Gulf Oil Company has 11 expatriate employees, the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) has 39 expatriate employees, the Kuwait Petroleum International Company has three expatriate employees, and the KPC’s administrative building has one expatriate employee.
It is a known fact that KPC and its subsidiaries are working on a plan to replace expatriate workers with national workers in order to reach the highest Kuwaitization rates based on the directives of the State and the National Assembly in this regard. Regarding the number of expatriate petroleum engineers working in the oil sector, the KPC revealed that there are 97 engineers in KPC, 89 expatriate engineers in KOC, and four expatriate engineers each in Gulf Oil Company and KUFPEC. Other companies in the sector do not have any petroleum engineers. KPC affirmed that it applies the Kuwaitization policy in order to provide job opportunities for citizens and is replacing expatriate workers with Kuwaiti workers in various activities and technical fields in order to raise the proportion of Kuwaiti workers compared to expatriate workers in KPC and its subsidiaries.
According to responsible sources, KPC is applying the Kuwaitization policy with focus on a number of aspects such as commitment to expand the recruitment of Kuwaitis – as KPC and its subsidiaries appoint an average of 1,000 Kuwaiti workers annually particularly in the technical and engineering disciplines – and training and qualifying Kuwaiti employees, and transferring experiences and knowledge from non-Kuwaiti employees. The sources stated that the percentage of Kuwaiti employees in the oil sector has increased in the past five years. From 86.5 percent in the 2014/2015 fiscal year, it reached 91 percent by the end of December 2020 in the 2020/2021 fiscal year after excluding the employment of the Ahmadi Hospital affiliated with an oil company. They revealed that KPC and its oil companies are targeting to appoint approximately 4,500 Kuwaitis who hold university degrees and diplomas, fresh graduates and those experienced in administrative and engineering jobs, within the next five years – from 2021/2022 to 2025/2026. It is worth mentioning that the oil sector relies heavily on oil contractors and contract workers for carrying out many activities within the oil companies.
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