Falling crude oil prices have severely impacted the operations in the global oil and gas industry, and in particular, the drilling sector in recent years. However, ‘Captain’ Pham Tien Dung, with his insightfulness and professionalism, has steered the ship of PV Drilling in a sustainable manner against all adversities in the oil and gas drilling market and achieved stunning successes. Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with PV Drilling President & CEO Pham Tien Dung on this topic. Anh Dao reports.
Could you please introduce remarkable results of the company? What are its advantages and hardships?
After 15 years of development, starting from a small mechanical engineering factory providing repair and maintenance service for drilling equipment and oil spill response service, PV Drilling has become among the leading drilling contractors in the region, owning a modern rig fleet with four new-generation offshore jack-up rigs, one semi-submersible self-erecting tender assist drilling rig and one land rig, as well as an advanced infrastructure capable of supplying a diversified scope of high-tech services... Currently, PV Drilling has occupied 50 per cent of the market share for drilling rigs and 70 per cent of the market share for drilling-related services in Vietnam.
In 2014, the Company achieved remarkable business results with VND20,884 in revenue, VND2,491 billion in profit after tax, and VND3,586 billion in the contribution to the State Budget. By end of 2015, the company’s total assets surpassed US$1 billion (VND24,915 billion)Also in 2015, we witnessed the worst crude oil price crisis colliding at full throttle with the operations of oil and gas companies, and causing drastic damages to the whole industry.. However, PV Drilling still maintained an excellent performance with a revenue of VND14,444 billion , bagged net profit of VND1,664 billion, equivalent to a respective compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.1 per cent and 30.5 per cent in 2006-2015 period. With the amount of VND2,810 billion contributed to the State Budget, PV Drilling was ranked No. 26 among the top 1,000 enterprise of tax contributors in 2015.
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The above remarkable outcomes resulted from the Corporation’s intensive application of advanced technologies and its implementation of a practical corporate governance system to boost its competitiveness and improve business performance. PV Drilling also possesses a capable working team of experienced executives, technicians and employees. Most of the staffs are young, dynamic and competent professionals in their fields. In addition, PV Drilling always receives the valuable supports from Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) in both aspects of technology and business management.
PV Drilling has been honored with various prestigious awards such as the First Class Labor Medal bestowed by the State President of Vietnam (2011), the Most Admired ASEAN Enterprise Award by the ASEAN Business Council (2013), the 50 Best Vietnamese Listed Companies Award in Vietnam by Forbes Magazine (2014), three titles of Best Oil and Gas Drilling Contractor in Asia (2012, 2013 and 2015) by World Finance, the Enterprise for Employee Award 2016, and the Top Brands Award 2016. In June 2016, CEO Pham Tien Dung was honored in the “Top 100 excellent business leaders in ASEAN”” by the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia Association for Economic Cooperation Development (VILACAED), the Thailand - Vietnam Entrepreneur Association, and Mekong Times in Thailand.
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Apart from advantages mentioned above, PV Drilling has to confront numerous difficulties and challenges due to heavy reliance on the exploration and production activities of operators. The volatile nature of oil prices made the drilling market highly unstable. Harsh weather conditions also severely affect the deployment of drilling operations, particularly in offshore fields. Furthermore, as the drilling market in Vietnam is quite open to international drilling contractors who have a long history of experience and powerful financial capacity, their presence also imposes significant pressure on PV Drilling in expanding the domestic market share and maintaining its pricing competitiveness. Additionally, the increasing popularity of clean fuels is shaking the domination of fossil fuel. In the future, the development of green energies will reduce the demand of crude oil gives rise to significant challenges for the whole oil and gas industry.
With its proud business achievements, PV Drilling has been an icon of success of the sustainable oil and gas industry in the past 15 years. Would you mind revealing the secrets and development strategies?
The robust growth of PV Drilling has originated from its appropriate investment and development strategies. Firstly, the company focused the majority of its resources on developing the core services of drilling and drilling-related services. PV Drilling invested in modern drilling rigs as well as advanced ancillary facilities and equipment to meet the requirements of oil and gas operators. Besides, PV Drilling always highlighted the crucial role of human resource in the development strategy and constantly reinforced its professional training activities. At present, PV Drilling has built up a workforce of more than 2,000 highly skilled employees.
In addition to investing and owning modern rigs and machinery, PV Drilling has spared no effort to establish an advanced corporate governance system empowered by modern information technology and complied with the international standards in order to meet the requirement of integration and to compete with international service providers. The synchronised systems and standards include Oracle ERP (enterprise resource planning), Maximo (rig material inventory management), reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) as well as other regulations and processes of international standards. These systems have considerably enhanced the effectiveness in corporate management while improving the service quality and building the trust of customers.
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On annual basis, PV Drilling donated over VND40 billion to social incentive programs such as building kindergartens and schools for children across the country, building bridges in the Mekong Delta and sponsoring hundreds cases of heart surgery for underprivileged children, etc.
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In 2015, ERP Project - Phase 3 was deployed with the aim of launching the online budget planning and smart management report function in order to fully take advantage of the benefits of the corporate governance system in optimising the effectiveness of management and enhancing the professionalism in business operation.
To overcome current difficulties of the oil and gas industry, PV Drilling has defined to carry out the following four crucial strategies. Firstly, PV Drilling will continue to improve the competitiveness and ensure the quality of services for customers. Secondly, PV Drilling will further strengthen its financial management, promote the application of scientific technology, implement relevant cost-cutting solutions, combat waste and maintain business operations. Besides, PV Drilling will also focus on reinforcing the capability and professionalism of its human resources, which will be a significant competitive edge of the Company. Lastly, PV Drilling will reinforce and promote its business development and expansion to the global market. The initial targets will be the neighbouring markets in Southeast Asia including Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, etc.
In addition, PV Drilling will maintain a harmonious relationship with its partners and the local communities to build up a sustainable corporate environment rich in culture and humanity, improve the life quality of the local community and foster environmental protection and social incentives.
As a veteran entrepreneur, would you be kind enough to share your ideals and business experience with young entrepreneurs?
I have been working in the oil and gas industry since 1992 and have more than 20 years of experience, including over five years working as a technical expert for international oil and gas service companies. I belonged to the 1st generation who founded this company from the day one. Together with my predecessor, we have turned a small mechanical workshop into one of the leading drilling contractor in the region. Through what I have experience, I would like to share with young entrepreneurs the three important qualities that they should equip for themselves in order to sustain and thrive – those are passion, perseverance, and professionalism.
When doing our jobs with passion, we create motivation and energy for ourselves to face difficulties. Contrary to many people’s thoughts, working on oil rigs exposes you to harsh environment and constant danger, even injury and fatality. The threats may be fire, explosion, blow-out, and falling overboard. Without passion, I myself would have abandoned it.
| The sharp decline of crude oil price has caused a drastic drop in rig day rate and considerably increased the number of stacked rigs all over the world. In the increasingly competitive market, the jack-up PV DRILLING I has recently surpassed over 30 other drilling rigs from 10 international drilling contractors to win the contract for Total E&P Myanmar’s drilling campaign at Block M5 and M6, offshore Myanmar. This success has affirmed PV Drilling’s reputation and capacity in service performance that could adapt to the stringent criteria and standards of global oil and gas operators like Total E&P Myanmar. It is also a significant breakthrough in PV Drilling’s effort to accelerate its global integration and develop with sustainability. |
The second quality is perseverance and determination to pursue our chosen path. Napoleon said: "The foundation of perseverance is the power of the will”. All of us will obviously confront various difficulties on our entrepreneurship journey. But such difficulties would also deliver us the valuable opportunities to challenge and forge the strength of our will. Every time we overcome an obstacle, we will move one step closer to success.
And finally, in the current context of global integration, particularly in the oil and gas industry, it is mandatory that we exercise professionalism in our provision of services for clients and deliver the committed quality. The effort to maintain professionalism and the trust with clients shall be the prerequisite condition for enterprises to integrate successfully into the worldwide market and sustain the harmonious cooperation with global business partners.
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