EM166338 DOI: 10.
2118/166338-PA Date: 10-July-14 Stage: Page: 141
Creating a Comprehensive
Staff-Development System for
Technical Competence Advancement
in a Russian Company
Jeffrey J. Lelek, SPE, Consultant
Summary
With reserves becoming more difficult to find and produce, oil
and gas companies face a growing challenge to keep staff techni-
cally current. As the industry loses massive technical knowledge
over the next 5–8 years because of retirement, younger staff will
need to develop more quickly. Graduates from Russian univer-
sities in particular will need a variety of training, development,
and motivational programs to enable them to develop globally
competitive competencies. Traditional Russian culture and educa-
tional methods can hinder establishment of necessary develop-
mental programs. Realizing that its technical capabilities were
insufficient to deliver aggressive business goals, one large Russian
company set out to change its approach. The Comprehensive Staff
Development System (CSDS) it implemented differed greatly
from Soviet-style efforts, which tend to be largely theoretical.
Targeting more than 15,000 technical specialists and managers
organized in 16 disciplines, the CSDS blended the efforts of func-
tional, human-resources (HR), and operating departments.
The CSDS covers technical specialists from the day they join
the company until they retire or leave. University graduates can
enter a Young Specialist program for 3 years, participate in a
Pathways program for another 7 years, and then spend their pro-
fessional career in the Technical Excellence program. Each pro-
gram addresses different development needs. Overall, the CSDS
aims to accelerate the creation of fully independent specialists
and also spread knowledge and competence internally. Experts
advance a technical career ladder, with appropriate reward and
recognition paralleling that of management. A custom-designed
Technical Team Leader program provides support for those who
branched out into technical management.
Designed primarily to keep technical competencies up-to-date,
the CSDS also guides access to leadership; health, safety, and
environment (HSE); and regulatory training. The system outlines
competency requirements for various positions, competency-
assessment methods, formal-training expectations, informal-train-
ing and distance-learning options, available knowledge-manage-
ment systems (KMSs), communities-of-practice (CoP) options,
mentoring and coaching opportunities, discipline career atlases,
and the personal-development-plan (PDP) tool. The system is
jointly owned by discipline leaders and HR. Discipline leaders
and their staff-development networks ensure that programs target
business needs, and contain high-quality and pertinent content.
HR administers much of the process and brings professionalism in
education methodology. Both parties work to make sure that the
discipline as a whole is able to satisfy the professional challenges
of the company.
Western concepts influenced the design of the system, which
was developed at relatively low cost by use of largely in-house
expertise. Among the impediments to implementation, cultural re-
sistance at many levels was the most difficult to overcome. Strong
Copyright V
C 2014 Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper (SPE 166338) was accepted for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, 30 September–2 October 2013, and revised for
publication. Original manuscript received for review 24 October 2013. Revised manuscript
received for review 16 December 2013. Paper peer approved 10 January 2014.
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management support and a long-term view were critical to suc-
cessful change.
Introduction
Global hydrocarbon supply and demand oscillates through time.
The recent balance that has kept oil prices near USD 100/barrel
has encouraged high levels of exploration-and-production activ-
ity. Many companies struggle to attract, develop, and retain tech-
nically competent staff. This struggle will persist as reserves
become more difficult to find and produce, as technology advan-
ces at ever-increasing rates, and as the university system (espe-
cially in Russia) produces smaller numbers of science majors. As
the industry loses massive technical knowledge in the next 5–8
years because of retirement, younger staff will need to develop
more quickly. To reach global competence levels, graduates from
Russian universities in particular will need a variety of training,
development, and motivational programs.
One of the 10 largest private oil companies in the world, and
one of the more progressively managed companies in Russia,
began a new approach to staff development in 2007, when it real-
ized that its technical capabilities were insufficient to deliver
aggressive business targets. An integrated training/development
concept was designed and implemented, involving functional,
HR, and operating departments. This approach has become com-
mon in Western companies; for example, Halliburton after 10
years showed a strong positive correlation between the compe-
tence of the workforce and primary key performance indicators,
including safety, service quality, and financial areas (Leuro and
Kruger 2012). This integrated approach is, however, nearly un-
ique in Russia’s oil industry, and is very different from Soviet-era
efforts, which tended to be largely theoretical.
Among the many challenges to implementing the CSDS was
cultural change, which was the biggest impediment. Progress was
intermittent, often painful, and often slow. Fortunately, manage-
ment took a long-term view in supporting the system. Program
elements were approved and implemented, but not all them were
embraced by the organization. After nearly a decade of the com-
pany’s existence, and more than half of that time spent working
to create the CSDS, the company was acquired by a larger com-
pany that had virtually none of the system elements. The initial
few months of organizational integration suggests that virtually
none of these elements will be adopted within the new company.
A new cultural wall will need to be hurdled for progress to
continue.
The Challenge
Company Background and Context. The company involved
was a vertically integrated oil company with a diversified upstream
and downstream portfolio concentrated in Russia and Ukraine. It
had a well stock of more than 30,000 wells, with approximately
21,000 producers and 9,000 injectors. Average daily production
approached 2 million BOE/D, and 3P reserves were more than 40
billion BOE. The company, employing approximately 50,000 peo-
ple, was governed by a multinational management team with expe-
rience in more than 50 countries.
141
 EM166338 DOI: 10.2118/166338-PA Date: 10-July-14
5,0
Proficiency Level 4,0
3,0
NOC Benchmark
IOC Benchmark
2,0
IOC Accelerated
1,0 Company Trend Line
0,0
20 30 40 50 60
Age
Fig. 1—Generic summary display of competency assessments,
comparing company data with benchmarked worldwide data.
During its initial decade of existence, the corporate culture
progressed rapidly. Having inherited a “Soviet-style” culture, sig-
nificant changes were enacted in corporate governance, company
management, financial controls, technology trials, and day-to-day
process. A highly risk-averse culture yielded to increased risk tak-
ing, leading to widespread continuous improvement efforts, infor-
mation-technology-based process-improvement systems, and
communities where new ideas could be shared from unit to unit.
Most recently, the company was reaping benefits from a function-
ally oriented organizational initiative.
Business-Strategy-Driving Technology Needs Driving-Capability
Development. Intuition alone indicates that business needs
should drive organizational capability development. Within large
organizations, tying those two concepts together can be challeng-
ing. Within the case study company, a recent technology strategy
included a vision to capitalize more heavily on “hard-to-recover
reserves”—in essence, producing more of its in-place hydrocar-
bons. The strategy included a goal to convert existing resource
volumes into reserves and production by improving in three areas.
The first area was technologies and processes, including oil-
field data acquisition, well design, multistage fracturing, depletion
planning, sweep efficiency, and real-time asset-information flow.
Plans were to invest more than USD 100 million in such projects
during 2013, with an expected 30 million bbl of incremental oil
production by 2015. They also planned to use more technologies
to reduce costs, with a recent successful example being the dril-
ling of simpler wells at Samotlor field, cutting drilling costs by
6% (Innovator 2013).
The second area was tax incentives for resources classified as
low-permeability, viscous, and shale oil. The company was active
along with other companies in lobbying the Russian government for
fiscal changes that could help unlock these enormous opportunities.
The third area was organizational capability, which included
capacity (the number of specialists) and capability (the compe-
tence of specialists), as well as partnerships and supply-chain
management. People and their capabilities were very much a pri-
ority within the company, and it was important that each em-
ployee see the link from the company strategy to their own work.
A recent survey in the company (Potapova 2012) showed trends
in this area that influenced the design and construction of organi-
zational-capability development processes:
 Only 30% of employees are fully aware of the goals and
strategies of the company.
 These goals are not always consistent with personal
objectives.
 66% believe that the organizational structure is not always
consistent with the objectives of the company.
 Only 38% support changes in the company.
 Only 25% approve of existing intangible incentives cur-
rently used.
 There is a lack of uniform understanding of work methods
in various work units.
Staff Competency and Capability. Systematic analysis of staff
competency began in 2007, with the definition of disciplines and
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competencies and the creation of assessment tools. As definitions
emerged for the new processes, a common language and mindset
were developed. The first task in progressing staff-competency
methodologies was to identify the members of each technical dis-
cipline, which had not been performed previously. The only way
to tally staff had been by job position—for example, grouping
them as chief specialist, manager, senior manager, and so forth. In
identifying discipline members, generally if a person spent more
than 50% of his/her time working in a certain defined area (e.g.,
reservoir management, geology, major projects), then that was
their discipline, regardless of education degree or past job history.
For the first time, it was possible to see the capacity part of the
organizational capability equation, and realistically plan for rota-
tions, succession, and renewal.
Competencies, the sets of knowledge and skills required by
individuals to perform work in a discipline, were addressed next.
Defined within disciplines, competency levels were set for each
job position, and information-technology tools were developed to
measure individual competence. Although these in-house tools
seemed sufficient, in 2010 management used Schlumberger’s
NeXT group to do an impartial competency assessment within the
reservoir-management and wells disciplines. These analyses
clearly showed how company staff compared with a global data
set (Fig. 1). Typical of national oil companies, less-experienced
staff in the company tested similarly to global averages, but little
competence growth was seen with increasing experience. This is
consistent with tendencies in the company for lack of ongoing for-
mal training, scarcity of role rotations, and poor internal knowl-
edge sharing. A glaring opportunity was to grow competence
quickly in younger staff, to match the pace of competence growth
within the group noted as “IOC Accelerated,” or those staff within
international oil companies (IOCs) that undergo intensive and
comprehensive training and development.
In a parallel effort, technical discipline management used staff
development networks to subjectively rate the organizational capa-
bility of teams across the organization, relating to stages of the
work process inherent to that discipline. These capability assess-
ments showed room for improvement in most areas, pointed out
areas where business risk was high, and set targets for 2-year com-
petence growth.
The company also addressed the aspect of language relating to
knowledge management by encouraging bilingual (Russian and
English) communications in its business (McMorran 2011).
Because many technical publications globally are in English, staff
access to the literature and technology advancements is facilitated
when native Russian speakers develop English skills. Concerns are
growing in Russia overall about scientific publication. Whereas
developing countries such as Iran, Malaysia, and Pakistan have
increased scientific publication, Russia has stagnated (Blyth
2013). Maxim Kotsemir from Moscow’s Higher School of Eco-
nomics found that publications by Russian scientists were lower in
2011 than in 2001, and the average number of Russian scientific
papers is one of the lowest in the world. Within the subject com-
pany, as part of the dual-language culture, Russian lessons were
strongly encouraged and provided to expatriates.
A Systemic Solution: The CSDS
In 2007, the company began to develop and implement a CSDS
for technical staff (more than 15,000 technical specialists and
managers, organized in 16 technical disciplines). Drawing heavily
upon Western company examples, this integrated framework
evolved over 5 years.
This integrated system covers technical specialists from the
day they join the company until they retire, and includes several
joint programs with Russian universities to prepare students before
they even enter the workforce (Fig. 2). University graduates can
enter a Young Specialist program for 3 years, join the Pathways
program for another 7 years, and then spend their professional ca-
reer in the Technical Excellence program. Each program addresses
different development needs, aimed at accelerating the creation of
fully independent specialists and spreading internal knowledge
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 EM166338 DOI: 10.2118/166338-PA Date: 10-July-14 Stage: Page: 143 Total Pages: 8

PROGRAMS within the CSDS Technical

Technical Team Leaders
Young Technical
Pathways Team
Specialists Excellence
Leaders
Tech-Excellence
Heriot Watt
R. Holloway Pathways Knowledge
Leadership Mentoring
Young Competency Management
Skills and
Specialist Assessment System
Training Coaching
0 3 8 10 20 35
Years of Experience Personal
Dual Career Communities Career
Development
Path of Practice Atlases
Fig. 2—Overall program progression of the CSDS. Plan

and competence. Experts can advance along a technical career lad-
der, with appropriate reward and recognition. A custom Technical
Team Leader program helps those who branched out into technical
management.
Designed to keep technical competencies current, the CSDS
also includes leadership, HSE, and regulatory training. The sys-
tem outlines required competency levels and assessment methods,
formal-training expectations, informal-training and distance-
learning options, KMSs, internal communities of professionals,
mentoring and coaching options, career atlases for each discipline,
and the PDP tool. The overall system is governed by discipline
leaders and their staff development networks to ensure that pro-
grams target business needs, and that the discipline as a whole is
able to satisfy the professional challenges of the company. HR
administers much of the system. Western concepts influenced the
system design of the system, which was developed at a relatively
low cost by use of largely in-house expertise.
Elements of the CSDS
The CSDS pulls together many tools and processes within the
company aimed at developing staff competence. Most of these ele-
ments (Fig. 3) also serve as motivators, increasing productivity
and retention. Many elements were deployed before being brought
together in a comprehensive way; however, those early deploy-
ments were sporadic, inconsistent, and confusing to staff members.
A large amount of autonomy in regional units, coupled with differ-
ing priorities and views toward staff development, resulted in
some groups doing some things, some doing other things, and
some groups doing very little. Bundling things together under a
strategy and logical system allowed management to deliver a con-
sistent message.
Fig. 3—Major elements of the CSDS.
Young Specialist Programs. Young Specialist programs fast
track the development of technical staff hired into the company
from universities. The goal is to make them effective and semi-in-
dependent specialists within the first 3 years. The company devel-
oped two types of programs, each of which is competency driven
(Fig. 4).
The first type is an intensive, corporate-held, ring-fenced pro-
gram that selects a small subset of new hires for a 3-year immersion
consisting of approximately half classroom training and half field
experience. The Drilling discipline established their program first,
in 2006, followed by Wellwork and Capital Construction. They
have been very successful, with the two biggest challenges being
retention after graduation and finding fulfilling roles for graduates,
who have high expectations when they complete the program.
The second type of program includes virtually all the univer-
sity hires in a discipline, who are scattered across the company in
full-time roles. The program brings them together for company
indoctrination sessions, up to 35 D/yr of broad technical training,
and additional HSE and leadership (soft skills) training. This for-
mal training is supplemented by mentoring. The program also
suggests one or two role rotations within the 3 years. The Subsur-
face discipline (geoscience and reservoir management) was
scheduled to start the first program of this type in 2013.
The company also sponsors and supports various programs
within universities to provide a stream of better-qualified employ-
ment candidates. One example of this is the Tomsk University/
Heriot-Watt program, which for years has provided the company
with top-notch graduates in reservoir management (McMorran
2011).

0
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
15 16
17 18
19 20
21 22
23

Fig. 4—Example of competency profile expectations for Drilling Young Specialists in Years 1–3 of the program (Filippov and Sado-
khin 2012).

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 EM166338 DOI: 10.2118/166338-PA Date: 10-July-14
Pathways Program. After intensive training and work experien-
ces during the first 3 years, most specialists need less formal train-
ing, more networking opportunities, continued mentoring, and
varied job experiences. The Pathways program outlines appropri-
ate training classes and makes sure that the tools and processes of
the company are at the disposal of the staff. Competency-assess-
ment systems are available to help individuals determine where
they need to improve, along with a catalog of internal training and
distance learning options.
Technical Excellence Program. More-mature and fully inde-
pendent specialists should participate in advanced training, in-
dustry seminars, and networking options. Expert staff members
are encouraged to develop and deliver in-house training and to
produce in-house distance learning courses. Highly specialized
staff can progress up the technical career ladder and seek posi-
tions as experts or advisors. These staff members are expected to
play ever-increasing roles in the CoP, in contributing to the com-
pany’s technical strategy development, and in providing technical
mentoring to junior staff.
Technical Team Leader Program. Recognizing that leading
today’s technical teams requires special skills and knowledge, the
company embarked in 2012 to design a program for technical
team leaders. After considering global best practices in this area,
the first step was to interview a broad sample of leaders, manag-
ers, and employees to ascertain where technical team leaders had
the most development opportunities. The resulting concept, diffi-
cult to grasp, was to move leaders toward a position where they
do not automatically use habitual behaviors and actions but rather
choose which behaviors and actions to use on the basis of the sit-
uation. It is not technical training in terms of pushing buttons on a
workstation, and is not traditional leadership training, but rather a
hybrid of the two. The course consists of three 1-week sessions
Fig. 5—Personal input criteria diagram (Petukhova 2012).
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containing various modules stressing interactions and mutual
learning, rather than PowerPoint presentations.
Materials and exercises are presented in the following areas:
company technical standards, value-chain work processes and
interactions, uncertainty management, corporate strategy and tech-
nology plans, organizational capability tools and requirements,
individual personality types, and team dynamics. Learning occurs
mostly through case studies, small group interactions, and group
discussions. The participants are middle- to upper-level technical
leaders who have much experience to share, and company exam-
ples are used whenever possible. The roles of the external consul-
tants are to deliver the leadership modules and maintain the
integrity and continuity of the course. Internal experts facilitate the
technical parts. This program, like much of the forward-looking
agenda, was put on hold with the recent takeover.
Leadership Skills Training. Four levels of leadership training
exist, with each level offering a different mix of self-management,
process-management, people-management, and communication-
management content. This career-long path of soft-skill develop-
ment aims to
 Shape corporate personnel competencies that are consistent
with corporate values
 Facilitate personal motivation toward training and development
 Develop an awareness of the need to self-improve in all
areas, including leadership
 Build a positive and proactive attitude toward change
 Develop high-level business ethics and a sense of corporate
membership
The annual employee-evaluation process, tied to the short-term
bonus plan, reflects individual performance relative to corporate
values, which form the basis for all decisions and activities within
the company and are tied to this leadership training path. The per-
sonal input criteria evaluation, which builds off these values (Fig.
5), is not only a motivational system but is also a key development
July 2014 SPE Economics & Management
 EM166338 DOI: 10.2118/166338-PA Date: 10-July-14
tool for employees. It makes it possible to assess not only what has
been achieved, but also how such results were achieved.
Competency-Assessment System. The first internal technical-
competency model was completed in the Wells discipline in
2007. Approximately a dozen disciplines had competency models
by 2013. Staff assessments are performed upon request by disci-
pline managers because there are no corporate or stream mandates
on the frequency of assessment.
Development of competency tools progressed in a logical fash-
ion, one discipline at a time. Two styles of assessment tools exist:
a self-assessment with validation option and an online test with a
question bank. The self-assessment method is used most often,
generally with good results. An external assessment performed by
Schlumberger for reservoir management in 2012, which included
one-on-one validation by Western subject-matter experts, vali-
dated the internal results, on average finding competence 2%
higher than that determined internally. In another discipline, how-
ever, “cheating” affected the output of self-assessments, and the
second style of assessment was used. In this method, a question
bank is developed, from which the online tool randomly selects
enough multiple-choice questions to allow the calculation of the
competence level in each area. This method is expensive to de-
velop, challenging to keep up-to-date, and awkward to administer.
Nevertheless, it has its place in certain cultures and circumstances.
Mentoring and Coaching. A “Leaders Developing Leaders”
class was introduced in 2011 to improve the level of mentoring,
generally used at the working specialist level. Each Young Spe-
cialist is required to have a mentor, and staff within the Pathways
program can choose to be mentored. Mentoring is aimed largely
at improving job delivery, increasing effectiveness within the
company, and getting to know the company culture.
Fig. 6—Upstream KMS, with aspects of data repository, search, networking, and knowledge sharing (Karfunkle and Mikryukova
2012).
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Coaching programs, aimed at upper-level managers and high-
potential staff, were implemented at approximately the same time.
Coaches from within and outside the company use in-house training
materials to ensure a consistent approach. Selection criteria for
coaches include current or previous experience with the company,
recommendations from other companies’ HR staff, and certification.
Knowledge-Management Systems. A corporate knowledge por-
tal, maintained by corporate HR, has been available for several
years within the company, and is generally used to
 Disseminate information on formal-training offers
 Disseminate information on internal training offers
 Offer an ever-growing number of e-learning classes, webi-
nars, and training videos
 Administer online competency testing for various technical
disciplines
 Administer online leadership competency testing and train-
ing, including 180 evaluations
Recognizing that technical specialists had needs stretching
beyond the capabilities of the corporate knowledge portal, a parallel
and synergistic KMS was developed in 2012 within the Upstream
division (Karfunkle and Mikryukova 2012). This system is a set of
processes and tools, supported by a Microsoft-based information-
technology platform, designed to facilitate or enable the following
activities (Fig. 6):
 Storing and retrieving technical data that has value across
the company, including technical standards, engineering reports,
project descriptions and post-project appraisals, conference sum-
maries, and pertinent external articles
 Easy access to personal profiles of technical specialists,
including photos, resumes, skills, and experience
 Instantaneous sharing of data and e-dialogue between mem-
bers of discipline or activity communities
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 EM166338 DOI: 10.2118/166338-PA Date: 10-July-14
Refining Drilling
technologies 3010 man-days
560 man-days
Geoscience
490 man-days
Reservoir
engineering
3300 man-days
Capital
Wellwork
construction
3035 man-days
1710 man-days
Fig. 7—Summary of formal training days achieved in 2012.
 Presenting a technical problem for the wider community to
address
 Centralizing an existing “continuous improvement” process
Launched in December 2012, by the end of the first quarter of
2013 the KMS had more than 600 users, eight CoP, and several
hundred stored documents. Uptake was expectedly sporadic and
slow, and incentives were being designed to reward usage and ac-
tivity and hopefully maintain momentum. This KMS effort in
many ways mirrored the efforts of Siemens, which began several
years earlier (Muller 2012).
CoP. CoP, common in many industries that rely on specialized
technical staff, were introduced in late 2012. Before that, the com-
pany had discipline communities (reservoir engineering and petro-
physics), but these were limited to the Tyumen Technical Institute,
did not involve the discipline across the company, and generally
focused on broader subjects. The new CoP model is activity-based
(e.g., waterflood management, viscous oil, well construction), with
each online community open to anyone engaged in that activity,
regardless of discipline, team, or location. Intended to reach across
all Russian locations (international locations are excluded initially
because of network-security concerns), the tool is designed to en-
courage knowledge sharing and problem solving, easy access to
expert support, and quick dissemination of best practices and les-
sons learned. It is also expected to play a large role in competence
development and career progression.
A typical CoP has a senior-management sponsor, a discipline
management leader, and a moderator responsible for materials’
quality control, organization of input, moderation of forums, and
encouragement to participate. Success of the CoP will depend
upon the willingness of expert members to share, which will
require a cultural shift within traditional Russian organizations.
Through centuries of asset redistribution relating to recurring
strife, the Russian administration system developed a penchant
for setting up internal competition to push performance (Pro-
khorov 2002). This deep-rooted tendency persists, stifling sharing
outside of immediate organizational units. During the administra-
tion of the KMS and CoP concept, concerns included “Can we
legally share our data, since we are a separate legal entity?” and
“If we share, then we might not get the credit.”
Dual-Career-Path Framework. Technical career paths exist in
many major companies where individual experience and knowl-
edge play a role in new technology and product development,
including Schlumberger, ExxonMobil, IBM, DuPont, Bell Labs,
and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The pre-
dominant reason for such programs is to improve business per-
formance, with subsidiary benefits including the advancement of
technology, recognition/motivation/reward of highly capable
experts, and staff retention. These programs provide an opportu-
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nity for technical experts to progress upward in grade level and
compensation, parallel to peers who enter management.
The program is administered by HR and managed by disci-
pline leaders, who first decide which technical specialties are criti-
cal to the business and thus justify one or more expert slots. The
progression in titles is expert, senior expert, adviser, and senior
adviser (Internal Position Grades 18–21), with the numbers of
available positions strictly controlled. In 2013, there was only one
adviser and one senior adviser in the company. These positions
require, respectively, recognition across Russia and recognition
globally. Experts do not have direct reports, but spend an increas-
ing percentage of their time on tasks across the company, includ-
ing providing technical support to multiple projects in a number
of units, contributing to company technology strategy, being
involved in internal training, and mentoring junior staff. Vacant
slots provide motivation and direction for staff considering ca-
reer-path options. Criteria for assessment include level of special
knowledge and skills, practical work experience, publication his-
tory, conference participation, education level, and recognition at
national and international levels.
PDP. Although the PDP tool has been used for at least 7 years,
its use has fluctuated and its application has been variable. For the
first time, in 2012, discipline management in at least three disci-
plines required all their staff to compose an updated form. The
tool captures basic information, including
 Personal data, experience, and education
 Short-, medium-, and long-term career plans and mobility
 Competencies and areas of expertise
 Development-planning activities
 Performance appraisal and growth potential
The concept is for each specialist to update his/her PDP every
year, and agree on it with his/her immediate supervisor, to ensure
that expectations are reasonable and that the organization can sup-
port what individuals wish to do. Management teams should
review their groups of individuals each year to focus on who
needs a role rotation, who should be evaluated for promotion, and
who needs special development options. This “group review” by
management required a cultural shift among managers, has hap-
pened in only a few areas, and has been slow to expand across the
organization.
Career Atlases. The first five career atlases were for the Drilling,
Wellwork, Reservoir Management, Geoscience, and Capital Con-
struction disciplines. These atlases, available online or in printed
form, are a resource for individuals trying to advance within a dis-
cipline, whether they wish to follow a technical path or deviate
into technical management. They describe the following areas im-
portant to developing a career in the discipline:
 Where the discipline operates, who works in it, and who is
the leader
 How members should develop their skills and capabilities,
and the principles of career planning
 Competency models and standard position or role compe-
tency profiles
 A training matrix by competencies and levels, including in-
house and e-learning
 Several interviews with successful colleagues about their ca-
reer paths
 Managerial competencies and leadership programs
Technical Training Delivery. Technical training is planned and
delivered through intense cooperation between corporate HR,
functional discipline management, upstream HR, and the operat-
ing regions. Discipline management ensures that training offers
match business direction, and HR coordinates the process, includ-
ing training procurement. In a process starting each year in Au-
gust, the formal (external training purchased at a corporate level)
training program is designed, and by the end of the year, some
80% of participants for the next year are identified for specific
classes. Internal training, given by internal expert staff, used to be
July 2014 SPE Economics & Management
 EM166338 DOI: 10.2118/166338-PA Date: 10-July-14
700
600
500
400
346
298 308
285
300
200
100
0
2002 2003 2004 2005
Fig. 8—ESP mean time between failures during 2002–2011 (Svidersky 2012). “Green” forecasts were subsequently exceeded.
quite haphazard, but beginning in 2013 was included in the corpo-
rate catalog, giving staff advance time to sign up and attend.
In 2012, approximately USD 15 million was spent on technical
training in upstream alone, almost double the prior year. The dis-
tribution of training among disciplines in shown in Fig. 7. Most
formal-class delivery is from external service providers. Discus-
sions about an upstream learning center, perhaps similar to that of
Saudi Aramco (Aggour et al. 2011), failed to generate a viable
project.
Targeted Competency Campaigns. Systemic improvement of
the tools and processes to help boost overall technical staff com-
petence is the focus of this paper. However, along with these sys-
temic efforts, specific technology campaigns were undertaken and
were scheduled to continue. In some companies, these have been
called “master classes” to reflect the advanced nature of the mate-
rial taught and the skills developed. These campaigns combined
classroom hours, supplemental materials, and coached work ses-
sions. Two of these are cited as examples.
The electrical-submersible-pump (ESP) campaign of 2009–
2011 was a successful competence improvement program that
addressed a specific technology need. Artificial lift accounts for
95% of the company’s production, with 15,000 downhole-equip-
ment-replacement jobs each year and approximately 5,500 ESPs,
10 000 km of downhole cable, and 2,200 control stations purchased
each year. Specially formed sector teams analyzed operations and
developed a detailed improvement plan. The resultant training pro-
gram touched more than 450 employees, and the average pump life
was extended from less than 300 days to more than 600 days, beat-
ing the target improvement set in 2006 (Fig. 8).
A more recent example of an intensive development effort is
the Waterflood Methods & Practices class, which strongly links the
geologic understanding of petroleum systems with reservoir engi-
neering/waterflood theory, review of waterflood systems, water-
flood management, surveillance, and performance management.
From July 2011 through the end of 2012, the class was taught seven
times to more than 130 subsurface specialists and managers. The
understanding gained through this class created a paradigm shift,
allowing the business to effectively move from Soviet-style line-
drive to more-modern injector-centered, patterned waterfloods. The
result was a stabilization of pressure and a corresponding decrease
in the base decline rate within many fields.
Generally, training and initiation of work in specific fields con-
tinue through deep dives with regional staff. After each deep-dive
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600
580
525
435
360
324
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
review, experts assessed the staff against expectations for an IOC
in the categories of data quality/systems, attention to reserves
management, reservoir characterization, reservoir modeling, pet-
rophysics, well testing, surveillance, performance tracking/man-
agement, waterflood management, and enhanced oil recovery. An
earlier skills assessment showed that the company has a shortage
of technical specialists with 10–25 years of experience available
to coach younger specialists. Those individuals that have suffi-
cient experience to be considered technical advisors are often
deeply rooted in legacy methods from the Soviet past. To supple-
ment the Waterflood Methods & Practices class, a waterflood
immersion workshop was developed for selected individuals to
expose them to Western standards of technical excellence and to
additional process, tools, and methods. Twenty-one individuals
participated in a workshop that included business trips outside the
Russian Federation, and they will champion the progressive and
evolving waterflood process within the company.
Status and Conclusions
By early 2013, most elements of a CSDS were in place, although
some were still in their formative stages. As a general observa-
tion, most new elements (tools or processes) took at least 3–5
years to become widely accepted and commonly used. In the early
years, when elements were fragmented and scattered, many faded
away. The CSDS, because it housed all elements in a sensible
framework, helped combat this tendency. Senior-management
support was critical, repetitive encouragement required, and a
leap of faith helpful.
In 2012, the CSDS touched most of the 15,000 technical spe-
cialists. For example, virtually all the 6,000 subsurface and wells
specialists had PDPs, and most accessed parts of the training/men-
toring system. Subsurface specialists alone took more than 12,000
formal-training days, as well as numerous internal and distance
learning classes. The formal-training budget for reservoir manage-
ment more than tripled from 2010 to 2012, with more than three
times the number of specialists receiving training. This increase
was bound to continue; however, the recent takeover seems likely
to reverse this trend. The upstream KMS was being populated
with data, and within the first 3 months of deployment had eight
new CoP established and working.
Following are several observations/suggestions offered as dis-
cussion points for companies considering a similar undertaking:
• Agree early on a strategy for organizational capability
development.
147
 EM166338 DOI: 10.2118/166338-PA Date: 10-July-14
• Determine early what gaps and needs exist, and prioritize
potential tools and processes that best address those gaps.
• From the beginning, envision a comprehensive system and
place individual elements within this system. Rolling out indi-
vidual elements without providing the context of how they fit
together can be confusing.
• Strive for consistency across the organization to avoid disparate
processes and tools evolving in parallel or at vastly different
paces.
• Senior-management sponsorship is critical to success.
• Plan for frequent and redundant communication, with reinforce-
ment of the tools and processes, examples of successes, and
awards/rewards for champions.
• Incentives can help jump-start certain elements and accelerate
early adoption and proliferation, such as a new KMS. Monetary
incentives might be needed, particularly in the early stages.
• Benchmarking can use the success of competitors to help justify
programs, and provide examples of how they can add value to
the overall business.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks his numerous colleagues who helped with this
work over many years. He also thanks the progressive manage-
ment who evaluated each initiative and element, and approved ev-
ery one that made sense for the company.
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Jeffrey J. Lelek has more than 33 years of upstream energy ex-
perience, with roughly half spent in the US and half spent inter-
nationally. He currently consults on technical capability
improvement focused on exploration and development. From
2012 to 2013, Lelek was Director of Technical Capability for
TNK-BP in Russia; previously, he consulted on technical learning
delivery. When Lelek retired from BP in 2010, he was Director of
Geologic Services and R&D with teams of high-end specialists
in Houston, London, and Aberdeen. He was Exploration/
Developments Director in Australia and Exploration Manager
in the UK before leading hiring efforts and in-house discipline
management for BP. Lelek started his career with Amoco in
1979 in Denver, working exploration through field develop-
ment across the US. After working in Amoco’s Chicago corpo-
rate office, he was the Exploration Manager in Cairo
responsible for building the Nile Delta program, was Gas Asset
Manager in Canada, and was involved in Middle East New
Ventures. Lelek has a successful record in exploration, field de-
velopment, program management, strategy and technology
development, joint-venture partner and government relation-
ships, and organizational capability.
July 2014 SPE Economics & Management