Knut, Petroleum Engineer Specialist

"This is field development on a grand scale."

For Knut, there were more than the usual benefits to joining Saudi Aramco. When his children were born, he made a conscious decision that they should have as multi-cultural an upbringing as possible. This meant living in Egypt when they were very small, before spending several years back home in Norway. Joining Aramco then presented the perfect opportunity for his family and him to experience a new way of life in the Middle East.

Knut explains his reasoning: "If you have the opportunity in the modern world, especially with globalisation, to remove thresholds before they become too high, it gives people more options. Because it's the fear of the unknown that is the problem. Not the reality. That's why I've wanted my children to have a truly multi-cultural background."

But there was another crucial reason why Knut decided to move to Saudi Arabia. He explains: "Aramco has more projects in the pipeline than any other company in the world. There really are huge opportunities to do proper technical work, which you would struggle to get in a lot of other companies. The reason is that there is so much oil here. We're talking about billions worth of dollars being spent on all facets of oil production. This is field development on a grand scale."