Oxy Employees Harvest Fruit in South Texas

The Oxy South Texas Citrus Round-up was held in San Juan, Texas, in December 2011. Oxy employees volunteered their time and energy to harvest a citrus orchard located on the company’s property. The harvested fruit and a corporate donation were given to the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley to help local families in need.

More than 90 volunteers from Oxy’s Early Career Network (ECN), including Houston- and South Texas-based employees, picked over 35,000 pounds of citrus during the two-day event. Other activities for the volunteers included tours of the South Texas natural gas assets.

On the second day of the Citrus Round-up, Jeff Johnston, Asset Development Manager for South Texas, presented a check in the amount of $25,000 to the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley. For every dollar donated, the food bank can provide five meals to needy families. The food bank feeds an average of 20,000 people every week, and half of those served are under 18 years of age.

At the appreciation dinner after the Citrus Round-up, Bill Albrecht, President of Oxy Oil & Gas, Americas, thanked the participants for their generous efforts. By offering employees creative and meaningful ways to engage with local communities, Oxy fosters an environment of teamwork and collaboration in the workplace.

See "Oxy Employees Harvest and Donate Citrus to South Texas Food Bank" video in the Media Library.

Enhancing Career Opportunities for Students and Recent Graduates

Each year, high-achieving college students from around the country gain valuable industry experience and make meaningful professional contributions to Oxy as participants in the company’s Internship Program. Selected students spend 12 weeks with Oxy, working on current projects that have a real impact on the business. The interns are recruited from nearly 40 universities, and their unique backgrounds and varied experiences help to make Oxy’s Internship Program both diverse and exciting. In 2011, Oxy employed more than 130 college students in 16 U.S. locations. Their work spanned a wide variety of disciplines, including HES, land administration, engineering, geosciences, supply chain, human resources, legal and information technology.

Oxy’s interns enjoy many benefits, including competitive salaries, field trips, networking opportunities and social events. They participate in the companywide talent management process, which ensures they have the necessary tools to complete their assigned projects and promotes success by pairing each intern with a mentor and a manager, so that appropriate guidance and support are readily available.

Asked about her most memorable moment as a Supply Chain intern in 2011, Kristen Stone said: “Although every moment was memorable, the one that will stay with me forever was after we made our presentations to management and the President of Oxy Oil and Gas called my supervisor to congratulate him on his program. I was happy to have been a part of something that I knew my supervisor considered a success. I cannot stress enough how much Oxy wants its employees to succeed, and when the employees succeed, Oxy recognizes it.”

Oxy’s Internship Program not only offers students the chance to obtain practical work experience in their chosen field of study, it also provides many of them with long-term career opportunities. Three out of four interns who participated in 2011 are returning to Oxy as full-time employees in 2012, or for a repeat internship if they are still in school — a strong indication of the program’s effectiveness.

Says Radiya Noor, a 2011 intern now working as an IT Specialist in Oxy’s Houston office, “I fell in love with the people I worked with and Oxy’s friendly environment. Even though the people I worked with have many years of experience, my fresh, new ideas were valued. I know Oxy will help me to grow as an experienced IT professional as I help it to prosper.”

Employee Profile:
Ricardo Álvarez,
Operations Vice President,
Bogotá, Colombia

“I was able to demonstrate my potential because I was given the opportunity to challenge myself.”

Ricardo Álvarez started his career in 1979 as an engineering intern in Oxy Colombia’s drilling department. As a young engineer, Oxy provided Ricardo with several opportunities to gain international experience and develop his skills, including positions of increasing responsibility in Qatar and Ecuador. “[Through] applying your craft, getting to know other operations, working in foreign countries … your mind is opened to new problems, new possibilities and most importantly, new solutions,” Ricardo says.

Having demonstrated his potential, Ricardo progressed quickly to management–level positions. From a Petroleum Engineer just starting his career in Colombia, he went on to serve as an Operations Manager in Qatar, a District Field Manager at Oxy’s former operations in Ecuador and, after returning home to Colombia, a Project Development Manager at La Cira-Infantas. Today, after 33 years with the company, Ricardo is the Vice President of Operations for Oxy Colombia. “Oxy provides development opportunities to those who seek them,” he says. “Oxy is not a passive company and will facilitate your growth if you know what you want.”

Employee Profile:
Fahad Jahrami,
Project Engineer,
Houston, Texas

“From day one, I was given real projects with real budgets and real problems. This made me feel like this was the place to be.”

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004, Fahad Jahrami returned home to Qatar to join Oxy as an electrical engineer. During his seven years with Oxy, Fahad has pursued several career development opportunities that have allowed him to grow and progress within the company. “Each year I have been presented with a different, bigger challenge,” he says.

Following two years at Oxy Qatar on increasingly complex projects, Fahad was given the opportunity in 2006 to work in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on the engineering of a $200-million off shore facility for Qatar. After Malaysia, Fahad returned home and was given a new challenge and a new role — this time as the project manager overseeing the design and engineering being conducted in Singapore for a $60-million off shore project in Qatar.

In 2010, Fahad joined Oxy’s Permian business unit in the United States, where he is getting additional experience in managing projects — and taking the opportunity to pursue an MBA at the University of Houston. “Once I finish [in the U.S.],” Fahad says, “I’m looking forward to returning home and finding out what my next challenge will be.”

Early Career Engineers Network Teams up to Teach

Oxy’s Early Career Engineers Network (ECEN) in Houston, Texas, is an inter-business-unit organization of engineers, geologists and geoscientists in the first five years of their careers at Oxy. In 2010, ECEN members shared their skills with the community by partnering with organizations to teach math and science to local students.

Working with Communities in Schools, six ECEN volunteers tutored Milby High School students at risk of not graduating. Additionally, partnering with Citizen Schools Texas, ECEN members taught an after-school class at Jane Long Middle School and hosted an energy field trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

“Our group was looking for a way to utilize our skills and reach out to young people in the community. Tutoring math and science was a perfect fit,” said ECEN co-chair Jeff Matre, Drilling Engineer for Oxy Permian. “One student’s grades improved 10 percent across the board after only two weeks of tutoring! That was really rewarding for our volunteers.”

Oxy Does its home-work with Habitat for Humanity

Employees from several Oxy locations gathered in their respective communities in 2010 to work on home-building projects under the auspices of Habitat for Humanity, an organization dedicated to providing affordable homes and eliminating homelessness worldwide. Oxy employees in Los Angeles, California, and OxyChem employees in Wichita, Kansas, volunteered their services as painters, landscapers and carpenters. In Houston, Texas, Oxy’s Early Career Engineers Network organized an opportunity to help build a home for the new Habitat for Humanity project in Milby Park. The event garnered so much interest that it expanded to include Oxy employees from other departments.

Oxy Sponsors Scholarships for Students in Oman

In 2010, Oxy partnered with the Ministries of Manpower and Higher Education in Oman to sponsor 50 scholarships for higher education diplomas in Oil and Gas, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The scholarships were granted to Omani high school students from limited-income families, to help them pursue higher education and to enhance employment opportunities. As part of the students’ curriculum, Oxy will provide internship opportunities in their final year of study, as well as mentoring. The goal is to develop the scholarship recipients so that they can be considered for full-time employment in the Omani energy sector, including Oxy.

See "Oxy Sponsors Scholarships for Students in Oman" video in the Media Library.

Qatarization

Oxy Qatar is an active participant and leader in Qatarization, a government initiative to promote recruitment of Qataris for jobs at all organizational levels, from executive management to entry-level positions, in order to build a stronger national workforce and economy. Oxy has a longstanding practice of hiring local employees in its business locations around the world. The company participates in a similar program in Oman. Oxy's Qatarization activities encompass employee career development and retention, as well as recruiting at career fairs and universities. Oxy was a main participant in the first Qatari government career fair and hosts summer internships for university students.

Oxy Colombia's Traveling Social Responsibility Fair

Oxy Colombia chose an innovative way to communicate its social responsibility messages to employees, contractors and local community members, sending the company's first Social Responsibility Fair on a 40-day journey from the capital city of Bogotá to the Caño Limón, Caricare and La Cira-Infantas oilfields.

Aimed at employees, contractors, government officials, local community members and other stakeholders, the project increased awareness of Oxy's social responsibility policies and programs. Nearly 1,100 employees, contractors and community members attended the fair, including approximately 300 in Bogotá, 470 in Caño Limón and Caricare, and 360 at La Cira-Infantas.

At each location, attendees viewed four displays, each covering a different pillar of Oxy Colombia's social responsibility framework. The displays were staffed by pregoneros, young men and women from the community who had been trained as guides. The pregoneros explained the four pillars, presented videos, and invited attendees to participate in interactive games related to social responsibility practices.

The final activity of each visit was the "SR cube," which helped participants visualize how social responsibility is integrated within Oxy Colombia's operations in order to ensure their sustainability. This educational feature demonstrated that the entire system is affected even if only one element is missing.

The project garnered plaudits from observers and participants. Said the Governor of Arauca, Luis Ataya, "In this fair we could see the progress, devotion and seriousness of Oxy and Ecopetrol in strengthening processes that will only bring benefits to all the communities in the province of Arauca."

"What impressed me most?" commented Pedro Avellaneda, a contractor from PTS Colombia. "The way you have presented this dynamic ... by drawing on local and regional culture, by using music. It is really fascinating and has impressed all of us."