Akbar Torkan

The most important achievement of the Iranian oil industry after 100 years of history is an accumulated knowledge base which has been established within organizational framework of the oil industry. It is known in international management literature that when an organization has necessary methods as well as needed system to achieve its goals, it has, in fact, mastered an “invisible wealth”.

This “invisible wealth” has been at the disposal of the Iranian oil industry for many years. That is, the industry has availed of well-established procedures or instructions which are considered its special assets. Experiences gained by employees and active manpower of the oil industry, is yet another valuable asset of the sector which is counted among the most valuable of its achievements. That experience should be transferred to next generations through constant employment of young manpower. This had started under former minister of petroleum, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.

The employment drive is still moving on, though due to temporary disruption of that trend, the industry has sometimes come to loss. The employment trend had stopped in certain junctures due to different reasons with the result being slow transfer of experiences to next generations. Today, being present in the “competition for recruiting the most talented” manpower is one of the most important issues in the world which can also impress activities of the Iranian oil industry, which is now turning 100.

This is especially a major challenge for all countries which have oil industry and we must be careful not to lose our skillful workers under conditions when we are not able to attract talented manpower of other countries. Winning this competition would not be simply possible through spending money. Although money, salary and benefits are major factors that motivate manpower, we must also pay attention to other motivating factors for the Iranian young people like patriotism and love for the country, in order to keep them working for the Iranian oil industry.

Under present circumstances, the Iranian oil industry is entering a new period when a large part of oil resources are nearly depleted and we must do our best to increase recovery factor of existing reserves in addition to formulating plans for production of heavy varieties of crude oil.