Oman LNG Wins Corporate Governance Award

Attesting to the company’s high degree of transparency, thorough standards of accountability and use of independently verifiable audits for business transactions with its various stakeholders, the World Finance has adjudged Oman LNG, the Best Company in Corporate Governance in the Sultanate for 2013.

The Award makes Oman LNG, Oman’s primary producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the first company in the country ever to win World Finance’s prestigious recognition for an exemplary corporate governance practice.

Corporate governance refers to utilisation of an established mechanism of procedures and policies that are fair and consistent across stakeholders of a business concern, and which working together, promote transparency, assure ethics and facilitate the application of due process to ensure the long-term sustainability of an organisation.

Business enterprises aiming to earn stakeholders’ trust, enhance their partners’ overall contribution to successful operations and thus increase commercial value proposition, must operate within the bounds of a strong governance framework.

As a player in the global energy business, Oman LNG engages with a multiplicity of stakeholders, locally and internationally—shareholders, government agencies such as the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Oil and Gas (MoG), feedgas supplier, buyers of its liquefied natural gas, regulators like the International Maritime Organization (IMO), banks, insurance companies, contractors that provide goods and services and the wider society, amongst others—its ability to balance these various relationships equitably and without guile, has been one of the company’s critical success factors.

In the sale of its LNG cargoes for instance, Oman LNG has since production began in 2000, consistently published the price at which consignments are sold and the quantities of cargoes loaded for each year in its widely circulated annual reports.

To earn World Finance’s Corporate Governance Award for 2013, Oman LNG was vetted by over one hundred twenty thousand publication’s readers, many of whom nominated it as one of the companies they saw deserving of the honour.

The World Finance Award Selection Panel then subjected the selected organisations to deeper scrutiny, using a set of criteria including “overview of governance structure; committees and their quorum; leadership and board composition; role, term and liability of directors, disclosure and transparency” to determine the eventual winner of its corporate governance award.

“The investment community, courts and regulators frequently extol the virtues of ‘good corporate governance’ in organisations but often fail to define standards. This is often because corporate directors’ legal obligations vary across jurisdictions, and opinions about corporate governance best practices, it’s value, and the means by which to adopt them are conflicting. Overwhelmed by the myriad factors that shape our understanding of corporate governance, it is not surprising that the state of corporate governance worldwide is constantly evolving and is subject to unprecedented scrutiny,” said World Finance in statement it issued after naming Oman LNG as a recipient of its 2013 Corporate Governance Award.

“Following on from the success of the last four years, the World Finance Corporate Governance Awards has become recognized as the benchmark for transparency and ethical standards. The winners are those who have gone far beyond their formal requirements for international listings and regulatory frameworks; they are fully transparent in their disclosures and have shown best practice when interacting with their stakeholders,” the statement concluded.

The Minister of Oil and Gas, and Chairman of Oman LNG, His Excellency, Dr Mohammed Al-Rumhy speaking on World Finance’s Corporate Governance Award to Oman LNG said, ”We should all be proud of Oman LNG for this recognition it has received from the World Finance for its good corporate governance framework. Establishing a reliable structure for the transparency of operations, guided by a code of conduct, procedures and policies are important requirements for stakeholders to enable the overall efficiency of activities in the oil and gas sector and I say ‘well done’ to Oman LNG for this exemplary achievement. At Government level, we are always emphasising on Corporate Governance and we hope all our companies will follow this example.”

Harib Al Kitani, Oman LNG’s Chief Executive Officer after receiving the award during the presentation ceremony at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) commented on how the country successfully pushes for responsibility and governance “We are grateful to Oman’s wise and visionary leader, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said for his guidance over the years which has enabled our company constantly strive to reach new heights in our effort to contribute to the development of Oman and its people through our business of producing and exporting the country’s natural gas resource. His Majesty always encourage ethical values and transparency in dealing with our work.

“We also use this opportunity to thank our shareholders, board of directors, the various committees that work under the board, our international buyers, contractors and all our loyal employees, who have worked diligently to consistently steer the company on the path of transparency and accountability, steadily guiding our operations towards good corporate governance that leads to growth and sustainability of our business,” he said

“Our task in the coming years is to make Oman LNG an even more successful company that continues to have the trust of all its stakeholders. We have committed ourselves to be The Best In What We Do,” Al Kitani concluded, citing Oman LNG’s vision.

The latest honour adds to a trove of other laurels and recognitions the company has attracted in other areas of its business including Omanisation, health, safety and the environment, human resources development and social investment.

The World Finance counts among its readers “key decision-makers around the world,Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operations Officers, Heads of Institutional Investment Firms and Heads of Banks. It offers reports on capital markets, risk management, trading and technology world wide.”

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LNG World News Staff, March 18, 2013