Saudi Aramco bases its citizenship role on the economy, knowledge, and the environment — broad areas where it believes it can make a positive impact on the Saudi society and create everlasting value to the economy at large

As a global business, Aramco is interconnected with the people in the societies where it operates. The company has worked hard to garner the trust and support it enjoys in communities in the kingdom and around the world.

In turn, its operations generate commercial opportunities for local businesses and employment prospects for citizens. Beyond the practicalities of simply doing business, Aramco conducts volunteer and outreach activities that foster healthy societies and enhance the lives of people.

By acting from a foundation of shared value with citizens – whether in the realms of economic opportunities, knowledge and skills building, cultural enrichment, or community engagement – Aramco seeks opportunities where its commercial interests coincide with its citizenship goals, ensuring that its business activities benefit its company and the communities where Aramco operates.

Education is a vital component of the kingdom’s transition to a knowledge-based economy. Aramco concentrates its efforts on helping develop the next generation of innovators by focusing on the development of Stem skills in the nation’s youth.

In addition, Aramco seeks to widen intellectual curiosity and cross-cultural awareness, which are also important foundation stones for building an economy based on knowledge and innovation. Its landmark King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture will lead its commitment to promote these values for generations to come. Opening in 2016, the centre will host a variety of multidisciplinary educational programmes designed to instill a creative ethos and a thirst for learning and knowledge.

A suite of outreach programmes under the umbrella of iThra Youth has reached more than 200,000 students and teachers across Saudi Arabia, providing interactive sessions to enrich Stem skills and encourage reading. Aramco also supports university-level forums and training courses in information technology and English.

Its heritage is built on a bedrock of citizenship. Its community outreach programmes seek to motivate people to become more active and engaged members of their communities. Aramco strives to raise awareness of impactful issues, inspiring citizens to make positive contributions to advance the kingdom’s progress, whether by leading a healthy lifestyle, conserving energy and water, or helping the less fortunate.

Since its earliest days, Aramco has engaged local communities to generate economic benefits, create jobs, enhance skills and knowledge, and care for the natural environment. Aramco continues to enlarge the reach and impact of its citizenship efforts – inspiring, nurturing, and leading by example – to help ensure the future growth and prosperity of its nation.
　

KNOWLEDGE

The Kapsarc

Aramco provides enhanced educational activities to make lasting contributions to the kingdom’s vision for a knowledge-based society. These efforts include interactive learning opportunities for the kingdom’s student population, encouraging a broader interest in Stem skills, promoting energy efficiency and safety, and supporting research into energy solutions. The centre The King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture – its flagship initiative for engaging the nation’s youth – will join the collection of institutions in the kingdom dedicated to knowledge and creativity.

In 2015, Aramco met key construction milestones for the building, and by the end of the year construction was 95 per cent complete. During the year, Aramco continued to prepare the centre for its opening while conducting outreach programmes across the kingdom.

Its suite of iThra Youth programmes reached thousands of young people around the kingdom, helping the next generation master the skills required to innovate and contribute to the country’s scientific and economic development. The iSpark programme, which offers hands-on workshops in advanced technology, science, and multimedia for ninth and 10th graders, reached over 10,000 students across four regions in 2015.

Overall, iSpark has reached 53,000 students and delivered more than 1 million hours of learning content. Aramco launched the third edition of iRead at the Riyadh Book Fair, where the Reader of the Year and photography competitions attracted more than 6,700 contestants and received more than 1 million views on the iRead website.

The programme is playing a significant role in cultivating a love of reading, knowledge sharing, and critical thinking – essential skills for developing a workforce that is globally competitive.

Three iThra Lab and iThra Youth Forums were held at Jazan, Madinah, and at the Saudi Science and Creativity Festival in Riyadh, attracting a total of 180,000 participants.

The iThra Lab offered interactive activities and workshops in fabrication and Stem skills facilitated by trained instructors while the iThra Youth Forum was a one-day event developed to spark imagination and creativity in young people.

By focusing on the development of math and science skills, Aramco helps nurture the next generation of innovators. Fablab-Dhahran, the centre’s digital fabrication laboratory located on the campus of KFUPM, attracted more than 4,200 visitors and engaged nearly 1,400 participants at 252 workshops on topics such as 3-D printing, laser cutting, electronics, and robotics, nurturing the "maker" potential of the next generation of innovative Saudi business people.

The iDiscover Knowledge Incubator represents the evolution of its successful iDiscover Programme, which toured nine cities in 2013–2014 and provided new math and science teaching techniques to 2,000 teachers. Operating after school hours in the Eastern Province, Al Baha, and Tabuk, and envisioned as permanent training labs for male and female students and teachers, the knowledge incubators delivered interactive math and science content developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Math Zoom Academy.

In all, iDiscover has reached 15,500 students in 12 cities across the kingdom and delivered more than half a million learning hours. To broaden its reach and magnify its impact beyond live programmes, the centre is developing online educational content in Arabic, including interactive computer games designed to bolster Stem skills.

Aramco also continued its support of talented Saudi designers and artists to showcase their work at leading regional cultural events. Through 2015, Aramco focused on readying the centre for opening its doors to the public in 2016, including working toward receiving gold Leed certification. Aramco finalised partnerships with distinguished international institutions such as the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Science Technology Centres, and Cirque du Soleil.

These relationships will enable the company to bring inspirational exhibitions and programmes to the Eastern Province while strengthening its ability to align the centre’s offerings to support the growth of innovative thinking. To nurture a passion for learning, Aramco stocked the centre’s library with 109,000 Arabic and English books, the heart of what is designed to become a world-class learning resource featuring multimedia and audiovisual capabilities, a children’s library, and more than 1 million printed and electronic titles in its holdings.

LAYING FOUNDATIONS

A view of the Aramco communities

In addition to initiatives conducted by the King Abdulaziz Centre, Aramco also engaged in a number of other programmes that support the kingdom’s vision to expand the scientific and technical competencies of the country’s population, laying the foundations for a more innovative and prosperous society.

Aramco continued to support enhancements to company built public schools by equipping them with modern technology, upgrading safety features, and improving energy efficiency.

By the end of the year, Aramco had transformed more than 800 traditional classrooms in 77 elementary schools to "smart" classrooms featuring the latest technology, installed 258 high-efficiency air-conditioning units at 57 schools, installed modern fire alarm systems at 25 schools, and improved school parking and traffic flows to increase safety at 33 schools.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Aramco launched Stemania, a pilot programme held in six public schools over fits weeks, to boost the Stem skills of female students. A hands-on, after school programme for seventh through ninth grade public school female students and teachers, Stemania is founded on a "Learning by Doing" model that creates enthusiasm for learning and discovery.

The programme reached 300 students and trained 33 public school science teachers. For the second consecutive year, its Women Development Programme convened more than 350 female university students and faculty members from across the kingdom for a full-day seminar focused on transitioning from university to the professional workforce.

Aramco also hosted a two-day university collaboration forum – the first of its kind – for more than 220 women from 30 universities across the kingdom to discuss opportunities in its workforce. Its Female Universities Outreach Programme conducted a series of seminars to help bridge the gap between university life and work, reaching more than 4,600 students including more than 3,200 at Taibah University.

By forging relationships with domestic universities, Aramco leverages their academic resources to help solve challenges faced by the energy industry, and at the same time help build their capacity in areas such as recruitment, training, and research and development. Aramco completed construction of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre (Kapsarc), an international research and policy centre investigating issues related to energy economics, the environment, and policy studies. Staffing levels reached 107 employees, including 61 researchers.

The residential community received Leed certification – the first of its kind outside of North America and one of a kind in terms of size – reflecting its intent to lead by example in improving the energy efficiency performance of the housing industry. Kapsarc is positioned to become a foundation for the kingdom’s research and innovation ecosystem and accelerate its drive to become a leader in developing energy solutions.

Aramco completed its project to enhance the infrastructure of Thuwal, the town adjacent to Kaust. Overall, Aramco built two flood control channels, seven new schools equipped with the latest in smart classrooms, a medical clinic, mosques, a cultural park, roads, a sewage treatment plant and an electrical substation. The project improved the quality of life for residents and enables sustainable future growth.

Its community outreach efforts also include promoting healthy lifestyles and well-being. In November, Aramco was a key sponsor of the 20th Annual Charity Run on the Dammam Corniche. More than 8,000 runners registered for the event, which included a 5K event dedicated for people with special needs.

Through its community-based initiatives, Aramco strives to empower teachers and students with the tools they need to advance their performance, instill a love for learning in the wider population, and provide opportunities for citizens from all walks of life to become actively engaged in their communities.

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Whether they live in the United States, Europe, or Asia, and whether they work in one of its offices or in a joint venture or project office, Aramco’s people are involved in their communities. They volunteer their time to protect the environment and help the less fortunate, they mentor students and support schools, and they are engaged in improving the quality of the places they call home.

The United States For the 11th consecutive year, its Houston office was the title sponsor of the annual Aramco Houston Half Marathon. Some 200 of its employees and family members volunteered during the three-day event and also supported "Run for a Reason," a charitable component.

Staff from the Aramco-Boston R&D Centre, as well as staff, family members, and company sponsored summer students from its Houston office, donated time to initiatives supporting local food banks. Volunteers from its Houston office also joined community efforts to improve and sustain seashore habitats in Galveston Bay, Texas.

The 2015 Advanced Motorsports Enterprise programme at Michigan Technological University, which promotes interest in new automotive technologies, is aligned with research under way at the Detroit branch of its global research network and creates potential synergies between academia and the energy and automotive industries.

Aramco sponsored the participation of more than 150 undergraduate and graduate students in the programme. In the Netherlands, Aramco’s office in The Hague supported charitable runs, walks, and bicycling events and staff from its London office volunteered with a charity group on a park regeneration project.

The London office also helped facilitate the expansion of the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge, which encourages young people to study chemistry, enabling the number of participating students in the UK to nearly double and raising global participation to more than 16,000 high school students from more than 90 countries, including GCC nations.

The Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, a national academic research centre in Beijing, China, received assistance from its Beijing office to help the Academy expand its research and training capabilities in computational mathematics, engineering computing, and other disciplines aligned with its business objectives. Its Beijing office also joined with Tsinghua University to sponsor two programmes run by Clean Air Asia, supporting research into air quality and technologies for creating low emission urban environments.

Its Tokyo office provides support for the Okinawa Coastal Ocean Observatory System, a marine conservation initiative of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology that helps preserve coral reefs and enables research into maintaining biodiversity.

Aramco believes that by engaging with local communities across a spectrum of shared values, Aramco aids the growth of sustainable and dynamic societies. This belief is backed by its support of beneficial citizenship programmes and initiatives and by the volunteer efforts of its people, inspiring brighter futures in the kingdom and around the world.

Expec Arc received two honours at the World Oil Awards. The Best Exploration Technology award recognised its collaborative efforts with a leading industrial partner for the successful field deployment of 3-D reservoir saturation mapping from crosswell electromagnetic surveys in horizontal wells. Its Production Technology Team received the Best Production Chemicals award for chemically induced pulse fracturing for unconventional reservoirs.

Its Yasref joint venture refinery won the Construction Project of the Year accolade at the 2015 Platts Global Energy Awards. The production and processing teams at its Khurais and Abqaiq facilities earned awards from Frost and Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council.

Khurais collected two awards: The Sustainability Leadership award recognised its resource and energy optimisation efforts, and the Engineering and Production Technology Leadership award recognised its innovative integrated analytical engineering performance monitoring tool.

Abqaiq earned an award in the Big Data and Advanced Analytics Leadership category for an innovative system to improve energy performance, marking the third time Abqaiq has won this award. At the 2015 Oil & Gas Middle East and Refining & Petrochemicals Middle East Awards, its Enhanced Oil Recovery Focus Area team, part of Expec Arc’s Reservoir Engineering Technology organisation, won the Enhanced Oil Recovery Project of the Year award for the kingdom’s first carbon capture, sequestration, and CO2 enhanced oil recovery project.

Aramco received a safety award in the International Facilities category at the 94th Annual Gas Processors Association Convention and eight separate gas and NGL facilities were recognised with Facility Safety Awards.

Its Ras Tanura Refinery won the Emerson Global Reliability Award for Reliability Programme of the Year, the first time a company in the Middle East had received the honour. At the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, the flagship event of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), a number of company personnel received awards of distinction and a President’s Award for Section Excellence was conferred on the SPE Saudi Arabia Section, which held 160 events attended by some 20,000 participants in a single year.

Its Traffic Safety Signature Programme was awarded the Public Awareness Campaign Award by the Intelligent Transport Systems and Road Safety Forum for the second consecutive time. Its Saudi Aramco Environmental Education Programme received an award for the Best Oil/Gas CSR/HSE Initiative at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference Awards.

The International Federation of Training and Development Organisations recognised its Communities of Commitment and Practice knowledge-sharing initiative with a Global HR Certificate of Merit award. Aramco was honoured with the Best Employee Value Proposition award by LinkedIn Talent Mena.

Aramco’s office in The Hague was named the Best Employer in South Holland by Europe’s leading survey company. Saudi Aramco’s publication, AramcoWorld, was honoured in October in New York with 10 magazine industry awards from the international juried competition sponsored by Folio magazine.

ETHICS AND INTEGRITY

Its behaviour is what defines Aramco – as a company, as employees, and as people. As Aramco continues to strive to be the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals company, everything it does is anchored by its Corporate Values: Integrity, Safety, Accountability, Excellence, and Citizenship.

Through the application of its values, Aramco achieves the highest business and ethical standards, with ongoing dedication to building and maintaining trusted relationships. Its comprehensive Corporate Governance structure is the mechanism that helps the company define its strategic direction and ensures its industry leadership. It also shapes how Aramco is seen by the world – including its customers, suppliers, and new and existing business partners. Its standards and integrity flow from its Board of Directors, which encompasses a wealth of diverse experience and a future-oriented mindset.

The Board demands that management adhere to the highest personal and professional ethical standards.