Starting out with Statoil

With Pims in Statoil, the doors for Omega into the Norwegian oil market became wide open. First for systems, then for personnel. Today, more than  250 Omega employees are on assignment for the Norwegian oil giant. 

Published: 13.01.13

1992: Advisor in Statoil, Sven-Olaf Jørstad is perplexed. The project management systems in use are cumbersome, expensive and inflexible. He was looking for a system adaptable to the real every day in project management.  

“I did not need computer experts to make these systems. I needed project management experts who knew computers,” Jørstad remembers.

Then he was introduced to a couple of guys who were working on some systems for the oil industry. They called it Pims.

Systems making ways for people

«Here I had found someone who did not just know project management. They were good at it. And they believed in what they did, almost religiously. I also “converted” after the demonstration of Pims in 1993.”

Til Sven-Olaf Jørstad. Vi skal ha et brukervennlig system som er enklest mulig. Basert på dine vurderinger skal vi gå videre med Pims. Vennligst informer alle ansatte om dette. 21.09.1994

Avgjørelsen som skulle vise seg å for alvor bane vei for Omega inn i norsk oljebransje.

After having signed the first Pims contract that year, Omega’s systems followed to one Statoil project after another; Tjeldbergodden Methanol project on Nordmøre, Mongstad and Kollsnes outside Bergen, Kårstø near Haugesund and Melkøya outside Hammerfest.

But it did not stop with Pims. Systems was only a door opener to what was coming.

“When we started with consultant agreements during the late 1990s we had already had Omega people around us for a while. We had wanted to have people for training, and Omega had been ahead of time here: Current Product Manager Johnny Vik  and Department Manager Svein Tore Haraldseid came to us, literally straight from school. And they were all so dedicated, these Omega boys. Everyone noticed that. So why not try more people from Omega?”

Consultant expansion

And as the opportunity with consultant agreements with Statoil arose, the new beginners in the business were sweating over the tenders during late nights in Ølensvåg.

“The agreements with Statoil were vital for us. The tenders were to be delivered at 10:00 PM and we worked until 05:30 the same morning. Nerves were at the breaking point,” former Omega  CEO Arne Gunnar Habbestad reminisce.

The consultant side of the business had been an important part of Omega since the very beginning, but it was not until the early 2000s this became a separate and RENDYRKET part of the company. Statoil became one of the really big clients, and a springboard for Omega’s further expansion.

«With Tor-Erling Lunde’s knowledge of the industry and contacts in the marked we had the knowledge on how to connect with the qualified and experienced people we knew could do a great job for us. And when we got them on board, we could not afford to lose them. We TVIHOLDT PÅ the expertise,” says Habbestad, who steered Omega through one of the worst periods in the history of the company.

Over kneiken

In 2000 the oil price was $10 a barrel. That was below production value. Omega  came through the year with NOK 300 000 in profit while many others in the business struggled through with a deficit.

“It looked glim. But that year we also got a lot  RETT I FANGET:  a lot of very qualified people who lost their assignments elsewhere came to us. We knew their qualifications and what they could do for us. And we did whatever we could to give them jobs: we gave them assignments in TOOL SHEDS and whatnot, many jobs far from their area of expertise. And many of those who came to us that year stayed with us, and we knew that these guys would represent Omega with top expertise in Statoil as the first agreements were signed and the marked came back on its feet,” says Habbestad, looking back.

The following years Omega passed 100 and 200 team members. The company had reached its first milestones.