Aramco Workers Head Back as Oil Giant Phases Out Remote Work

(Bloomberg) -- Tens of thousands of Saudi Aramco employees are going back to their offices and oil fields after weathering the coronavirus -- and one of the energy industry’s most turbulent periods -- at home.

While other corporate giants, including Apple Inc., envisage staff working remotely for the rest of the year, about 75% of Aramco employees are starting to return this week, the state-owned firm said in its weekly newsletter, Arabian Sun. Only those with critical roles at the world’s biggest oil exporter have remained at their posts since March.

Oil major BP Plc will allow a mix of working at home and from the office and could sell its London headquarters as a result. Apple is unlikely to fully re-open its offices in the Americas until 2021. Alphabet Inc.’s Google is letting staff work from home until next July.

Unlike technology firms, the oil industry needs people on site to operate drilling rigs and processing plants, and load tankers.

“Aramcons,” as the Saudi company’s 80,000-odd workers call themselves, are coming back to socially distanced desks, conference calls instead of in-person meetings and hand-sanitizer stations.

Read more: Saudis Seen Slashing Oil Price as Headwinds to Recovery Mount

At Aramco’s campus-like headquarters in Dhahran on the Persian Gulf coast and at wellheads and refineries across the country, they’re returning to a changed business. Oil lost almost three quarters of its value when the coronavirus went global and is still still down about 30% this year.

The company has reacted by reorganizing its top management, restructuring business units, and suspending some drilling and projects. It also took the rare step of laying off hundreds of mostly foreign workers.

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