From May 11 to May 17, Cheng Xianbin, Deputy Chief Engineer of Zhongyuan Petroleum Engineering Corporation (ZPEB), as well as Party Secretary and Deputy General Manager of ZPEB Overseas Engineering Company, paid an official field visit to ZPEB Saudi Branch and ZPEB Kuwait Branch for targeted market research, on-site operational compliance inspections and frontline employee condolence activities.
During his field deployment in Saudi Arabia, Cheng Xianbin held multiple high-level bilateral meetings with senior executives of Saudi Aramco and management teams from Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corporation Saudi Branch. He conducted on-site surveys at ZPEB Saudi comprehensive base and the SINO-28 drilling crew, and attended a dedicated operational progress briefing hosted by ZPEB Saudi Branch. Through frontline site walks and cross-department symposiums, he obtained full visibility of ongoing market performance, project delivery bottlenecks and daily operational risks within the Saudi onshore and offshore drilling market, and delivered targeted actionable guidance covering market portfolio expansion, HSE safety production, refined operational governance and overseas base infrastructure upgrading.
On May 17, Cheng Xianbin chaired a cross-department special symposium at ZPEB Saudi base. All department heads submitted formal work reports covering key performance indicators completed in the first five months of 2026, alongside a detailed reform proposal for the localized base management mechanism. In the same session, he delivered situation and mission education for all on-site staff to consolidate team confidence and executive determination for the company’s secondary venture initiative targeting high-quality sustainable growth in the Saudi Middle East market. Six core work mandates for subsequent overseas oilfield operations were officially released in the symposium, with full details listed below:
All Saudi on-site teams shall fully align internal HSE protocols with superior corporate regulations and Saudi Aramco’s mandatory contractor safety standards, and complete localized adaptation of top-down safety policies tailored to desert drilling operational scenarios. Departments are required to clarify hierarchical individual safety accountability and iterate the closed-loop HSE management system regularly. Mandatory monthly lessons learned from global oilfield safety incidents shall be implemented to raise universal risk prevention awareness among frontline crews. Technical capacity building including new staff, new equipment and new process training and regular post drills will be prioritized to empower grassroots teams to fulfill primary safety management responsibilities. In addition, standardized abnormal operational incident reporting workflows must be enforced. Any delayed, omitted, falsified or concealed incident reports will trigger formal corporate accountability with zero tolerance.
ZPEB Saudi will prioritize contract renewal for expiring drilling rig service agreements by delivering zero safety incident and high-efficiency drilling performance to retain existing market share. The local business team will deepen daily communication with Saudi Aramco’s upstream asset department to accelerate pre-bidding preparation for large-scale gas field lump-sum turnkey projects. Strategic cooperative ties with the world’s top four oilfield service providers will be strengthened to stabilize lump-sum well construction market orders. The team will also systematically collect and analyze core drilling and workover operational data to obtain high-level endorsement from Saudi Aramco. The long-term strategic goal is to transform from a single drilling and workover subcontractor to a full-industry-chain integrated oilfield technology and EPC service provider, with full pre-project resource preparation for upcoming lump-sum bidding opportunities.
All on-site business activities must comply with Saudi local federal laws, Saudi Aramco contractor compliance codes and Sinopec internal financial and procurement internal control systems. The enterprise will focus on risk mitigation across six high-risk segments: operational performance delivery, bilateral contract execution, cross-border tax and fiscal settlement, overseas material procurement, third-party subcontractor administration and drilling equipment cross-border leasing. Mandatory Code of Conduct (COC) compliance training will cover all expatriate and local employees, paired with national overseas compliance special training courses. Middle and senior management personnel must strictly follow multi-level internal approval procedures to eliminate compliance loopholes across the entire project operation lifecycle.
ZPEB Saudi will establish unified standardized equipment maintenance, regular detection and fault response procedures for all desert drilling assets, and launch quarterly targeted equipment safety inspections to reduce unplanned downtime. The branch will speed up the localization substitution of imported oilfield equipment: it has completed field deployment of domestic shale shakers, manned winches and iron roughnecks and automated catwalk systems. The equipment management team is negotiating with qualified Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to complete field verification and official commercial launch of domestic blowout preventers (BOPs) in Saudi drilling sites within 2026.
The branch will optimize staffing structure by matching post setting with rational manpower reduction to meet the annual overseas manpower streamlining target. A standardized internship system for level-4 and above technical posts will be launched to build a reserve talent echelon for Chinese expatriate core technical and management positions. Meanwhile, the company will adjust localized employment strategies: systematic skill training for Saudi national employees will be expanded, and qualified local staff will be promoted to core functional posts including site safety supervision and human resource administration. The initiative aims to lift the Saudi nationalization staffing ratio to meet long-term localized operational compliance requirements.
The branch will promote the corporate philosophy that every employee is the primary person responsible for personal health. It will strictly conduct annual comprehensive occupational health assessments and routine monthly on-site physical examinations for desert frontline staff. Customized one-person-one-policy health intervention plans will be implemented for staff with hypertension, cardiovascular and other high-risk chronic diseases, including regular medical history screening and long-term medication tracking. Psychological counselors will conduct monthly one-on-one private talks with expatriate employees to identify anxiety and emotional disorders caused by long-term overseas deployment. Timely psychological intervention and supportive assistance will be provided to guarantee overall physical and mental wellbeing of all on-site personnel.
