KNOC brought foreign executives on board for the first time for a state-run company
The Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) recently became the first state-run company in Korea to hire foreigners as executives. KNOC brought in Dr. Hugh Eaton Rowlett Jr. as the company’s chief of Institute for Exploration & Production Technology, and Dr. Robert David Elliot as the Human Resources Advisor.
Dr. Hugh Eaton Rowlett Jr. who holds United States citizenship is a world-renowned geophysicist who took the lead in two major exploratory mine projects in 2009, leading 350 technicians and geophysics experts at ConocoPhillips, a major international integrated energy company. Starting from April, he will be in charge of the education and career development of manpower in the field of petroleum development as well as creating technological synergy by utilizing professional manpower and the technology of partnering companies. Dr. Rowlett will also be in charge of establishing strategies for procuring advanced technologies regarding petroleum.
Dr. Elliot, the new Human Resources Advisor of KNOC, is a British expert in the field of Human Resources Develop-ment and was formerly the vice president of the HR division at Lukoil, Russia’s largest petroleum company, as well as the head of HR at the M&A Dept. of British Gas. From the end of March, he will be in charge of establishing operational plans for developing petroleum human resources pools and mid to long-term plans to recruit and develop a pool of human resources as well as serving as an advisor to the management in developing technology.
KNOC took this innovative step in an effort to foster energy professionals who are on the same level as the world’s major petroleum companies and to improve its success rate in exploration and drilling. KNOC is making such moves following the successful M&A of Harvest Energy of Canada, and as a part of the management’s aims to become “the world’s 30th international petroleum company” and “the international petroleum company that Koreans love.”
KNOC has established the “Great KNOC 3020” which is the company’s major strategic plan to realize the company’s goal of producing 300,000 barrels per day and securing reserves of 2 billion barrels of petroleum by 2012. Recently, KNOC introduced a Vice President System in an effort to better direct and manage its petroleum development sector. With this new focus, the company hopes to strengthen its new business development sector and petroleum development and planning sector. Another program that KNOC has introduced is its “Specialist” program, which enables technology development professionals at KNOC to choose either a “Technical” or “Managerial” career path within the organization.
Furthermore, as part of the company’s plan to grow into a mammoth petroleum company, KNOC aims to produce 300,000 barrels of petroleum per day by 2012. Since establishing the plan, the company has shown notable results. When the company first established the plan in 2008, KNOC’s petroleum reserves were 540 million barrels and its daily production 50,000 barrels. However, the company is rapidly growing, recording petroleum reserves of 880 million barrels and a daily production of 127,000 barrels per day as of December 2009. Since 2009, KNOC has successfully completed three M&A’s, including the take-over of Petro-Tech of Peru, Harvest Energy of Canada and Sumbe of Kazakhstan, leaving a notable mark on the world’s petroleum industry as an aggressive company with great potential to become a global petroleum company.