The Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El-Molla has discussed with Joe Rainey, Halliburton’s Eastern Hemisphere President, bilateral cooperation in light of the ministry’s strategy to expand in exploration and production (E&P) activities and professional capacity building, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

Talks extended to modern drilling and production enhancing and recovery techniques, as well as health, safety, and environmental (HSE) standards as one of the ministry’s top priorities.

The meeting also witnessed the signing of an agreement for cooperation in the human resource (HR) management field, in line with the petroleum sector Modernization Project, which aims at developing modern human resource management systems and efficiency-based promotions, as well as developing the sector’s middle management and young professionals.

Osama Mobarez, the Ministry’s Undersecretary for the Technical Office, and Colby Fuser, Halliburton’s Vice President for Egypt and Libya signed an agreement for cooperation in applying the Modernization Project’s HR Management Development Pillar.

Through the agreement, 20 young calibers will be trained by Halliburton for 6 months, in Egypt and abroad, with the aim of preparing them to be future leaders within the Egyptian oil and gas industry.

The program will involve various professional and technical aspects, ranging from HSE practices, operations, and digital transformation; to management, leadership skills, finance, accounting; as well as theoretical and practical training in Halliburton’s fields. It is the first training program, under the Modernization Project, to fully integrate the three areas together in one training.

El Molla stated that this agreement comes in light of the Egyptian government investments and cooperation with international oil companies (IOCs) based on mutual trust, while Rainey ensured that Halliburton looks forward to expanding the cooperation with Egypt as a result of the positive outcomes they have witnessed thanks to the structural reforms.