At Nobel Energy, we have always been committed to creating the culture of diversity and inclusion so that our people feel safe, respected and included. To build and sustain such environment, we have adopted a corporate value of ‘people-oriented’, which has allowed us to ensure both women and men have equal rights and opportunities, and greater sense of value, trust and satisfaction.

To see if we have been able to put words into action, we took an opportunity of International Women’s Day and talked to some of our female colleagues from across the Nobel Energy Group companies, to hear their firsthand reflections.

Saadat Rahimova

Saadat Rahimova works as a technologist in the Drilling Department of SOCAR AQS, Nobel Energy’s integrated drilling and well services segment. Her brief is to prepare weekly and monthly drilling reports and presentations, as well as develop reports on daily drilling progresses. 

Saadat thinks when it comes to people development, SOCAR AQS walks the talk. In her own words: “What I really like about our company is that it has been systematically investing in people and technologies, two key factors to ensure both personal and business success.  Just to give an example, the advanced software that I use to do the reporting, helps me to keep my technological skills up to date and deliver the job in an accurate and effective way”. 

Saadat is confident to express her opinion and ideas, and feels valued thanks to the speak-up culture that is encouraged by the management of the company. “I think the engineering experience that I gained before traveling to our offshore platforms has also played a role in my confidence, as it had taught me to keep my self-control at all possible crisis situations”. She adds: “It would be fair to say that knowing and sharing responsibilities with the team members have equally boosted my self-confidence and trust in my colleagues”. 

Sevinj Gasimova 

Sevinj Gasimova has been working for a Geology department of SOCAR AQS since 2008. Today, Sevinj is the Head of Geology Department, and her job is monitor and control geological processes during the drilling of oil and gas wells, liquid loading, completion, as well as gas logging services. Sevinj is proud to be part of some challenging operations, including well planning, and geological analysis, investigation of complications and identification of risks. 

She underlines: “I was both excited and proud to take part in horizontal well drilling, which was successfully implemented for the first time in the history of SOCAR AQS”. Some other complex jobs that she also contributed were open-hole lower completion processes, sidetrack drilling, planning and drilling of multilateral wells and exploratory wells drilling. 

Sevinj is assured that SOCAR AQS’s fundamental values support both employees’ personal and career development. “I have experienced it personally, when in 2015, I was trusted the role of Director of the Geology School by Azerbaijan Society of Petroleum Geologists. This makes me feel valued and supported by my company as I did not have to compromise neither my career, nor my academic activities”. 

Saida Askerova 

Saida Askerova works as Health, Safety and Environment Officer (HSE) at Prokon, Nobel Energy’s EPC business. Saida’s typical workday is about writing and monitoring safety reports, protocols and procedures. In her own words: “I evaluate possible safety risks and ensure that all safety measures are observed in worksites, employees are strictly informed and follow all safety procedures”. Saida’s other important task is to make sure that Prokon complies with the environmental standards, which remains as one of the main priorities for the Group. “Nobel Energy is determined to transform to meet today’s energy needs, while making sure it provides sustainable energy solutions, and I’m excited that we, as environmentalists have a big role to play in this.” 

Saida thinks Prokon is a great workplace which makes her feel safe and empowered. As she puts it: “I’m an HSE officer and what can be more rewarding than feeling safe and being part of the team that makes sure all of the employees are safe”. Being trusted to do such a responsible job makes me feel proud and keeps me motivated to unleash my potential even more”. 

Sabina Mustafayeva 

Sabina Mustafayeva, is thrilled to be part of Prokon’s Human Resources (HR) team at Prokon. “I am so delighted to have been assigned to one of the strategically important projects of my country - the Modernization and Reconstruction of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery (HAOR). As a Project HR Coordinator, I do support my company by providing professional, analytical, and technical support to HR related projects and initiatives”, says Sabina.  

For Sabina, working at Prokon is about being part of a healthy work environment, in many senses. “It is about promoting safety culture, healthy discourses, giving employees a voice, earning and extending trust within the company”.  

As the HR team, Sabina and her colleagues, make every effort to create a healthy, safe, people-oriented (both corporate values of Nobel Energy Group) environment. “It helps us to create the sense of community amongst our employees and motivates us to achieve better personal and business results. I am excited to be part of the team that has been contributed to creating such rewarding and inclusive environment”. 

Goncha Babayeva

Goncha Babayeva works as an Environmental Engineer at Prokon who contributes to the company’s HSE agenda by researching and analysing environmental issues in the area and create plans to decrease possible impacts of business operations on the environment. “I participate in ‘site environmental walkthrough’ sessions, collect observations and prepare close-out reports and provide recommendations for maintaining and improving our environmental performance”.

Goncha says she feels pretty safe, included, and comfortable in the domain, which is commonly cited as male-dominant, and she thinks it’s due to the nature of the team that she work with. She sums up: “I feel lucky to have Prokon as my first work place. My colleagues and the management have been very supportive, approachable and encouraging from the first day I joined the team. This has helped me to easily integrate to the team, and encouraged to deliver the best possible results”.  

Irina Mustafayeva

Irina Mustafayeva works for SDL Nobel, Nobel Energy’s subsidiary focused on the fabrication and installation of structural steelwork, upgrades of offshore facilities of major oil and gas companies. In her capacity as a Commercial and Planning Lead, Irina’s high-level responsibility is to contribute to SDL Nobel’s success through the annual commercial plan development process, as well as identify and analyse potential commercial risks and liabilities associated with proposals, ongoing projects and supplier agreements. 

At work, Irina feels completely safe and empowered. As she puts it: “We have an immensely friendly and caring environment here, which has allowed me ask open questions, freely express my opinions to the management and get the required support to constantly advance. Such approach makes me feel valued and use every opportunity to grow within the company".

Vusala Mammadbayova

With 15 years’ of experience in Procurement and Supply Chain, mainly in the Oil and Gas domain, Vusala Mammadbayova is a perfect fit for Glensol, Nobel Energy’s subsidiary that has been providing field operations and equipment maintenance services since 2012. In her capacity as PSCM Team Lead Vusala is responsible for planning, supervising, and coordinating procurement activities for the company. She is developing efficient business practices and implementing them in the team’s day to day operations. As part of her dynamic role she often finds herself “negotiating new agreements and renegotiating existing agreements to obtain better terms and conditions for the business”.

Vusala says: “I enjoy my job as I can see its direct impact on our business, but what I truly value here is that Glensol has created an environment where I feel comfortable and safe to achieve even greater results both personally and for our company”. She is confident that such environment, encouraged by the company culture and the management, has laid the foundation of professional and friendly relationships among the employees.

Vusala concludes: “I spend most of my day time at work, and I am blessed to have a workplace where I can communicate openly, ask honest questions, and share my ideas and concerns without any fear of retaliation – this has greatly contributed to securing psychological safety at work".

This article was originally published on IMPACT magazine (#39, 2022), issued by American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan. 

The world has entered into a new phase that is going to reshape the way of doing business. The reality is working safely and efficiently is not just enough – it needs to be done sustainably. Businesses need to make sure that while pursuing their objectives they don’t compromise the opportunities of the future generations to follow their goals. In other words, while doing business, on top of economic interests, businesses should also meet environmental and social requirements.

Given the importance of sustainability for the world, all major players, governments and businesses have been increasingly joining the forces to tackle one of the biggest threats the world has ever faced – climate change. 

While this huge threat to the world is chiefly caused by the excessive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, another big reason is overexploitation of resources.  

The challenge here is that the world needs more energy to support continued global economic growth and increasing prosperity, while considerably reduce carbon emissions. In order to address this dual challenge, energy companies, as well as many other big businesses are transforming.

Sustainability-focused business

Nobel Energy wants to help businesses turn their ambition into action, as well as be part of the solutions. For that reason, the company is transforming to help all its stakeholders get affordable and reliable energy, while reducing environmental impacts.

Nobel Energy is laying out a new strategy that will support the business transform from an Oil and Gas Services company to an Integrated Energy Production, Development and Services company, concentrated on delivering safe, agile, efficient and sustainable solutions for customers. 

Nobel Energy wants to be a catalyst for meeting the changing energy needs of the world and customers by increasing its focus on people, technology, and innovation. The good news is that the company has many years of multi-segment experience and the right ingredients – visionary approach, proven expertise, and integrated solutions – to meet the needs of all stakeholders. 

In order to support the company’s enhanced approach to sustainability, the new strategy is built around three key areas of activity: add sustainable energy line, become diversified, and keep innovating. 

Nobel Energy is confident that in addition to reducing the climate change risks, renewable energy sources will offer some tangible economic benefits too, by providing energy security (through reliable power supplies and fuel diversification) and economic development (via injecting new capital investments and creating new jobs).

As part of its new sustainable energy line, Nobel Energy is set to develop renewables business to help its customers and the world achieve safe and cleaner energy solutions.

Nobel Energy is planning to further diversify its business by setting up new services and products in targeted markets. Providing advisory services in the energy transition context will be among them. 

It is expected that the diversification will generate values both for customers and societies, as well as expand Nobel Energy’s business horizons to scale revenues.  

Nobel Energy is well aware that to achieve substantial results on sustainability we are highly dependent on innovative digital and computer technologies. The company is also assured that technology alone will not be enough to achieve the desired outcomes and it is therefore will be placing even greater importance on people development – the driving force behind all possible technological breakthroughs.   

To support these activities, Nobel Energy will count on two of its key enablers – integrated systems and strategic partnerships. 

For many years, the company’s established integrated services model has helped Nobel Energy to optimise end-to-end service delivery, and provide effective and efficient solutions to its customers. To achieve its transformation objectives and deliver overarching and agile solutions for customers, Nobel Energy will build on this successful business model and pull together all the Group resources and expertise.

Needless to say that partnering with technology companies is highly beneficial in many ways, offering more cost effective solutions and helping further develop organization’s technical expertise on top of other proven benefits. To this end, Nobel Energy will partner with tech giants who can help the company drive progress, provide skills it may not have to deliver agile and sustainable results.

Plans vs actions

Nobel Energy is on its way to building innovative and sustainable energy business over the next 10 years with a goal to achieve 5GW of installed mix of thermal and renewable energy generation capacities. The company aims to put these into action through investments, partnerships and Build-Own-Operate / Build-Operate-Transfer models starting geographically in Azerbaijan and expanding to Eastern Europe and Americas regions.

Nobel Energy has started stepping into the renewable and alternative energy pathway by looking at its own group-wide operations through increase of the sustainability in its own business operations and improving the business model through an innovative approach. The next step is to work across its Group of companies by developing and where possible introduce electrification, waste reduction and decarbonisation initiatives. 

These various scale projects will demonstrate the ability of Nobel Energy to exercise and demonstrate what can be done with the built-in strengths.

Nobel Energy also committed to several initiatives announced by the government of Azerbaijan, such as participating in the auction for wind power plant installation in the liberated Kalbajar and Lachin regions announced by the Ministry of Energy and a gas powered thermal power station under build-own-transfer model. The company is ready to use its competitive advantages but importantly has established necessary partnerships to bring the knowhow and technical capability for these projects. 

At the same time, there is a conceptual study under the development for a Renewable Energy Hub in partnership with foreign co-investors. This is expected to service industrial customers in the Absheron region resulting in the increase of sustainability of operations and supporting our country in achieving the Paris Climate Agreement and COP26 goals. This major study will be completed by the end of 2023 and will be a major contributor driving Azerbaijan’s energy transition.

Nobel Energy’s network allows the company to build a robust energy projects’ pipeline that goes beyond borders and gain access to the markets of Georgia, Ukraine, UK, Kazakhstan, USA, and Turkey where we have had presence, and other geographies through the strong relationships with Nobel Energy’s local and globally operating business partners.

Currently there are up to 1GW of project capacities under review for feasibility and investment with a goal to reach and wherever possible exceed targets.

All in all, starting 2021, Nobel Energy has been actively seeking and developing partnerships inside and outside of the country, jointly with the governments and private corporations, to unlock their potential for energy transition and will continue to do so.'