The UAE is the most active centre in the Middle East region for the UK’s oil and gas contractors, according to a survey
Overtaking Saudi Arabia, the UAE currently represents 43 per cent of the jobs available to UK contractors, despite producing just 14 per cent of the area’s oil and gas, reported Procorre, international professional services consultancy that operates in all business sectors in over 100 countries.
According to Procorre, Saudi Arabia represents 27 per cent of the jobs available to the UK contractors in the Middle East, but produces almost 40 per cent of the region’s energy needs, substantially more than the UAE.
Qatar is also ahead of the UAE in oil and gas production, producing a quarter of the Middle East’s oil and gas, yet it only represents 16 per cent of the jobs available to the UK contractors.
Procorre pointed out that there are many global companies whose head offices for the region are based in the UAE, such as BP, Shell and Petrofac.
This means the UAE can offer management and financial roles, as well as purely technical and operational ones, it added.
Lisa Mangan, relationship manager at Procorre, said, “The UAE has been vying for the role of central hub of the oil and gas industry in the Middle East for some time, but now it’s over taken Saudi Arabia in terms of jobs available to the UK contractors.
“Businesses set up their head offices in the UAE because they want to attract the best talent to the area, and many contractors are tempted by the more westernised culture that allows them to live in a similar fashion to the way they would at home,” she added.
The firm noted that a fairly common trend is for contractors based in the UAE to spend short periods of time in Saudi Arabia completing projects before returning to the UAE. Saudi Arabia tends to offer fewer financial and managerial roles to head offices and more technical positions. This, of course, limits the overall number of job opportunities for contractors, Procorre explained.
Mangan added, “For many UK contractors Saudi Arabia is a fly-in, fly-out zone. Contractors can spend a couple of days or weeks working on a project before returning back to their base in the UAE for the weekend.
“Contractors are now increasingly choosing to base themselves in UAE rather than live in compounds in Saudi Arabia.”
