Published on December 13, 2025

The time is 3:00pm when the Salam team settles into a call. For Amal Majeedah Aji, it is 10:00am – she is logging in from the other side of the world. Currently, she is at Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), a Shell joint venture company based in Muscat where she works as a Senior Production Technologist.

Amal is fairly a veteran in oil and gas. She graduated from the University of New South Wales as a Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) scholar in 2010 and has been with the company ever since.

Almost 18 years of oil and gas knowledge. If this knowledge was human, it would have been legal to drive at this point.

As we sit in the call, Amal talks confidently on her craft.

But she talks with humility. While knowledge is 18 years old, Amal doesn’t think it’s experienced enough.

Amal still thinks there’s opportunities to learn, which was why she decided to leave the comfort of home to work halfway across the world on a Long-Term International Assignment (LTIA).

Amal with the Nimr Clusterteam at PDO

"I have been working as a Production Technologist (PT) since the beginning of my career and have experienced working on all BSP’s major onshore and offshore assets. Mostly as Wells, Reservoir and Facilities Management (WRFM) PT on top of doing work on Wells delivery,” she casually shares, barely scratching the surface of a career that’s thick with experience.

She also held the role as WRFM Integration lead, managing end-to-end WRFM intervention activities in West Asset, and the co-lead for Sand Management efforts – all while running courses on Sand Management for BSP while heavily involved in the localisation of Sand Retention Testing Lab project between BSP and Universiti Teknologi Brunei.

Even then, Amal is hungry for more knowledge.

“What’s different about Oman is that I have the opportunity to do pure technical work,” she explains, “In BSP, my role was more geared towards planning and strategising. Here, I do the hands-on work.”

Oman poses a different challenge for Amal as PDO undergoes a Growth journey. Especially in this technical role, everything can be fast-paced and intense, requiring agile ways of thinking and creativity.

“Just to give context, imagine having a hoist operation to complete one well every three days, and a rig to drill and complete a well within one week – that’s very fast!” she further adds that quick thinking and problem solving are always required when working at this speed, especially when managing the Nimr Cluster (home to one of  PDO’s largest oil production field with the highest number of wells), an asset that can be temperamental in nature.

Despite the challenges, Amal embraces them with glee. Currently, she is learning a lot on subsurface initiatives that are not even practiced in Brunei, exposing her to a multitude of new technologies and ways of working that she can bring home. She has also been assigned as PT Technical Authority 2 (PT) to provide technical assurance on WRFM and hydrocarbon maturation work – assignments that are opening her eyes and mind for further learning.

Amal with the Bruneian community in Oman

It Takes Hard Work

While Amal is reaping the benefits of hard work that merits her to be on LTIA, she mentions that it takes grit and dedication. Being able to qualify for an international assignment requires proactiveness in competence development as well as a strategic planning on career progression, on top of identifying value added from being on assignment.

“It’s important to be an all-rounder. Be technically sound in most aspects, not only limited to your disciplines and find a niche and improve on it, a set of skills that you can improve on or “offer” to others. If I could give some advice, do more on Continuous Improvement work. If I were a certified practitioner at this point of my career, it would probably help me here better.”

So, what’s next? For Amal, she is focusing on her experience in Oman and like a sponge, absorb as much as she can from the experts there with the aim of replicating her learning back home at the Abode of Peace.

“As I bring my own set of experiences and BSP best practices with me here at PDO, I am learning a lot from PDO. There is a lot that we can adopt for BSP, which I hope I’ll have the opportunities to implement once home.”

 

Celebration for Nimr 3000^th Well

 

Amal Majeedah is one of the 15 BSP employees who are undergoing Long Term International Assignments all around the world. Competence development continues to be one of the key priorities for BSP. The LTIA programme opens doors for Bruneian talent to learn, stretch, and close their skill gaps by experiencing new environments and challenges. It sits alongside other opportunities such as project roles and national assignments, all designed to help Orang Kitani grow into the leaders and experts of tomorrow.