Objectives/Scope: There are many challenges associated while operating in oil and gas fields, from field complexity, economic feasibility, risk response & mitigations and people management. In Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), there are around 70 teams with more than 3000 employees responsible for operating and maintaining different environments for producing oil and gas with various operating conditions and risks. With the nature of recurrent operating challenges, there is a need to build the employees’ capability to self-running the process and decide the correct reactive actions in addition to being proactive to any possible future challenges. Hence the organization, with the support of Continuous Improvement (CI), decided to optimize the ways of working. Methods, Procedures and Processes: To optimize the performance of the different ongoing processes at operate and maintain department (O&M), Continuous Improvement Fundamentals (CIF) were introduced in 2018 targeting all teams to be at the Established maturity level by mid of 2023. Established level refers to the ‘level of maturity where the team can run the business independently and adhering to all risks and opportunities’. Teams at the established level have the right CI skill competency and infrastructure to independently make continuous improvements in line with the PDO CI standards. CIF consists of 5 elements which focus on: Standardizing all critical processes.Visualizing KPIs for the critical processes.Having frequent team huddles to review the KPIs’ visual management.Having frequent team engagements to discuss all improvements raised by the team members because of the visual management review or any idea the team members think will help to improve the performance.All CIF are maintained by having a robust leader standard work (LSW) to ensure the sustainability of the CIF. The CIF deployment journey is accompanied by a dedicated Lean program targeting all managers, team leaders and supervisors in (O&M). The program focuses on developing problem solvers and lean managers learning to develop each CIF within each team while transferring the knowledge to the subordinates through coaching, leveraging a structured Socratic questioning approach called coaching kata (CK). In addition, each CIF team is armed with qualified CI problem-solving facilitators. Results, Observation and Conclusion: By end-2022, 50 out of 70 teams have reached the established level, which means 75% of critical processes for each team have implemented CIF. The remaining teams are expected to reach established by mid of 2023. 58 managers qualified as lean managers, around 18 mln USD in savings between 2021 and 2022 and 48 Full-time equivalents (FTE) timesaving. Novel/Additive Information: Deploying CI fundamentals enables teams to be more innovative and provides an improved environment to prosper across all areas. In addition, rolling out the CI Fundamentals has shifted teams to utilize a Continuous Improvement mindset. The ‘CI Fundamentals methodology’s main principle is to connect and empower the knowledge within operations and maintenance teams and across the organization. PDO, as an organization, can drive daily micro-improvements that build over time to deliver large-scale transformation.

Power consumption is one of the leading producers of Greenhouse Gases and improving it will support Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) to meet its target of net-zero emissions. In 2020, PDO operations emitted tons of CO2 with the highest quantity coming from X field where High Voltage pumps, which consume about 15MW resulting in 75,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, are used. This paper will discuss the approach used to investigate and solve the given problem. The six-Sigma methodology was used to investigate the high-power consumption in water injection and deep-water disposal processes. Pareto analysis, which was used to scope the project, showed that 35% of power consumption is related to High Voltage injection pumps. The historical data of the response (power consumption) and potential causes of the problem were gathered from the field database. Minitab, a statistical data analysis software, was used in this problem investigation in addition to other Six-Sigma methods including process capability, hypothesis testing, and control charts. Graphical and statistical tools were also used to examine the relationship between the response and variables. Process mapping identified 27 potential causes of higher power consumption in five High Voltage pumps. The historical data of the variables were statistically correlated to measure the strength of the relationship with the response. The analysis concluded that suction pressure for pumps 1510 and 1520 is the statistically significant cause of higher power consumption. The power consumption of these two pumps was directly linked to the suction pressure using the Pearson coefficient factor and p-value. The suction pressure was too low which caused the pumps to consume more energy to pressurize water. Hypothesis testing resulted in a p-value of 0.00, confirming a strong relationship between power consumption and suction pressure. Appropriate countermeasures were developed, and a new pump operation philosophy was implemented, whereby one pump is always kept on standby. This resulted in a 4MW reduction in power consumption and, ultimately, prevented the emission of 18,000 tons of CO2 annually. Other benefits to date include a saving of around $2.6 million per year, with the potential to save more through replication. Additional yet unquantified benefits include curbing the impacts of climate change on the environment. The Six Sigma statistical approach is used to understand the hidden causes of the increase in power consumption that result in higher CO2 emissions. The reduction of power consumption in PDO's X field has paved the way for 10 other projects in the Company to reduce their CO2 emissions. We can partner with other operators in the Sultanate of Oman to follow Petroleum Development Oman's example of using the Six Sigma approach in Energy Transition.

Objectives/Scope PDO is a massive organization with more than 500 teams and 9000 staff working in different areas and responsible for hydrocarbon production with many associated challenges. To keep track of their processes' performance and predict or react to any challenge, all teams conduct frequent engagements depending on the nature of their processes. Those engagements typically take longer than the planned time with low efficiency in terms of practical actions. Hence, PDO realized the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of traditional team engagements; thus, Visual management (VM) was introduced as part of the new way of working. Methods, Procedures and Processes VM methodology was introduced by the PDO's continuous improvement (CI) function to the different teams as part of CI fundamentals Deployment. The approach is to develop an effective Visual Management (VM) dashboard and agree with all team members on the frequency of the huddles around the VM dashboards. Developing VM starts with identifying critical processes for each team utilizing specific criteria. Then all critical process is standardized and then visualized in the VM dashboard. A VM technique developed for the teams is called the: "One, three- and ten- seconds" template approach. Where one second means that in one second, the team can tell if they are on or off track; in three seconds, it can give information about the trends of each KPI; and in ten seconds, the team can see if any actions were agreed upon to overcome any gap. During the VM huddles, any identified gap is captured in the 3 Cs (concern, cause and countermeasures) section. This VM standard was accompanied by a lean managers program, where each team leader or supervisor is trained to develop an effective VM for their team process and how to coach them to develop the team's VM dashboard. Results, Observation and Conclusion Implementing VM dashboards and conducting frequent huddles in around 70% of the teams in PDO has significantly improved the effectiveness of the team engagements. The efficiency of the team engagements has improved by more than 70% as less time is needed to discuss all the team’s key process. In addition, the effectiveness has increases as well by increasing the quality of the outcome of theses huddles in terms of improving the closure rates of the generated actions, assured benefits realization from these actions and improved reflection rate of these engagements. As an outcome, in 2021, more than 250 CI projects completed and around 8500 CI ideas were raised and implemented. this resulted in time liberation of around 80 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) and 150 mln USD of cost savings and avoidance Novel/Additive Information Implementing standard VM across the organization have significantly increase the identification of the areas of focus for each team and has caught attention to the value creation discussion. Furthermore, this approach has become a new way of working and helped to change the culture and mindset of the teams. VM has becomes the preferred methodology to have effective meetings. The innovative part of this approach is having a new way of working and interaction with metrics and figures which prompts effective actions.

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Successful problem-solving is at the heart of any successful organization. The Six-Sigma problem-solving approach uses advanced data analysis techniques in conjunction with statistical testing to direct a team towards the problem solution. Since the introduction, the PDO Six-Sigma program has delivered >40 projects across 8 directorates, with projects making significant improvements across a range of diverse areas from Operational Carbon Reduction and Well Drilling Efficiency to HR response times and IT request efficiency. The PDO Six-Sigma training and development team have designed a highly effective improvement that is focused on training and coaching staff to execute structured problem-solving projects across all corners of the organization. This advanced problem-solving program method and the rapid success it has delivered so far, makes it a leader in the Oil and Gas industry. The PDO approach is fully transferable and equally effective to any organization in Sultanate of Oman. The program is fully organized and coordinated internally by talented Omani coaches and has delivered significant, quantifiable benefits from day 1 (>$42m savings). Six-Sigma capabilities are very rare in Sultanate of Oman, and the launch of this approach reinforces PDO's reputation as a leader in Lean & Continuous Improvement techniques. Since it's conception this small program has delivered >15 projects/year and (on average) savings of over $21 million per year for PDO, with some individual projects delivering >$2.5 million savings. The importance of this program for industry in Sultanate of Oman cannot be underestimated as it is now developed to a stage to be readily transferable if organizations have the same commitment to improvement. Several projects are already being replicated across internal directorates within PDO. In addition to the quantifiable cost savings, the program has also delivered customer satisfaction benefits as well as significant simplification and productivity improvements. PDO has been a pioneer in Sultanate of Oman in applying this approach effectively and efficiently. This overall technique, the training package, and the knowledge within the development team could be a game-changer and used as a catalyst to transform the industry in Sultanate of Oman. With very little investment, this approach could be replicated in almost any area of business from the Government sector to Manufacturing and Banking. The PDO Six-Sigma approach is unique in Oil and Gas and highly innovative in Sultanate of Oman. The methodology rapidly drives data-based measurements to effectively identify and validate root causes and improvements to complex problems. Where many Continuous Improvement techniques rely on team-based judgment and knowledge to identify solutions, the PDO Six-Sigma approach steers the team using the power of data and statistical analysis – this has proven to be incredibly powerful and effective for PDO.