When ExxonMobil announced a significant oil discovery offshore Guyana this year, behind the scenes of the successful explora- tion effort was a team of real estate, information technology and procurement experts. From setting up office space, to securing equipment and con- tracts for operations, to building residential housing for expatriate employees in remote locales, ExxonMobil Global Services Company (GSC) provides critical support to exploration, develop- ment and production activities in frontier locations worldwide. “We help the business focus on its core job of finding and produc- ing oil,” says Peter Sturla, Global Real Estate and Facilities (GREF) Angola project manager. “Above all, we want employees to be safe. As such, we strive to provide them with secure and comfort- able office and living quarters so that they can concentrate on the jobs at hand.” Sturla is currently overseeing construction of a new 60-unit housing complex in Angola for expatriates supporting the com- pany’s upstream operations. In the past five years, he has helped build offices in Dubai and housing in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. A team effort Three key GSC organizations help get operations up and running, and provide safe offices and housing for employees when ExxonMobil enters a frontier
location. GREF leases or builds and manages office space and housing facilities for expatriates. ExxonMobil Information Technol- ogy (EMIT) professionals provide computing, network and telecom- munications capabilities, and Global Procurement secures the goods and services to run the op- erations – everything from drilling equipment to pens and pencils. Often, new exploration and production areas are in remote locations in underdeveloped countries. Office space may be limited or unavailable. Telecom- munications links are nonexis- tent. Even roads and airports needed to get essential supplies into these areas can be limited. “For our permanent facilities compound to support LNG op- erations in Papua New Guinea, the company started by putting in roads to get to our site, build- ing power generation and water treatment plants and installing telecommunications,” says Scott Clare, manager of Asia-Pacific real estate and projects for GREF. Now that LNG production has begun, GREF has also completed construction of a state-of-the-art facility to support ExxonMobil’s workforce. The ExxonMobil Haus in Papua New Guinea (PNG) now accommodates more than 300 employees and features many of the same amenities as the new Houston campus, including ad- justable workstations in an open, collaborative environment outfit-
ted with high-definition wireless projectors, 55-inch light-emitting diode displays and ClickShare presentation technology. The 72-acre site includes a recreation center for employees. “We accomplished this in a country that has few examples of this type of advanced construction and with a workforce made up mostly of local workers,” says Dave Baker, senior project manager. First on the ground The GSC team’s involvement starts at the beginning of a project. “We’re integrated with the business to understand its long-term strategy and to deliver solutions to get operations up and running,” Clare says. Today, ExxonMobil has 18 ven- ture offices throughout the world. The company often establishes new offices in frontier locations in a hotel, as it did in Guyana (see story, page 15). “As ExxonMobil enters a new country and works with the government to set up production- sharing agreements, the advance team needs support and equip- ment from the very first day,” says Jeff Marsh, who oversees pro- curement for drilling and explora- tion projects around the world. GREF, EMIT and Procurement work together to set up offices, communications networks and living arrangements for person- nel. They also work closely with ExxonMobil Security and Medicine and Occupational Health to
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