In 2016, when the first discussions of opening the WTS Energy office in Romania have started between the current country manager of WTS Energy Romania, Mihaela Șarlea (Manta) and the CEO of WTS Energy, Frederik Rengers, there were a lot un uncertainties in the oil and gas market. Following years of working on Middle East area, Mihaela Șarlea embraced the opportunity to open the office and set up the 20th WTS Energy office worldwide. It all started with a business plan and continued with obtaining all the licenses and necessary certificates for full local compliance in terms of manpower specific for oil and gas, but also headhunt for engineering management. The new office was fully operational at the beginning of 2017, growing to a team of 15 in 2019 (7 in Bucharest, 8 in Ploiesti). “Another milestone was reached in 2018 with the opening of WTS Energy office in Ploiesti where with the help of our engineers we support the Sniffers operations around the world with work preparation, on site field measurement and reporting”, says Mihaela Șarlea.
After a long road, WTS Energy Romania is now in a larger office on Dimitrie Pompeiu which allows the team to attend better to the needs of clients and consultants. The official opening of the new WTS Energy Romania was on October 25th this year where the team celebrated with clients and partners the success of growing the business 10 times in 2 years.
“WTS Energy is the main international recruiting company focusing on oil and gas and renewables market present in Romania”, says Mihaela Șarlea. “We are here to assist clients with innovative solutions to increase productivity at the best opportunity cost. Quality of services is what defines us and we are led by the believe that any resource problem can be solved.”
The idea of opening the WTS Energy office in Romania has started many years before from another project on renewable energy. One of the clients had difficulty in finding suitable electrical engineers and cable workers for their projects in the North Sea. So, they asked WTS Energy to find out where they potentially could find good electricians. “And we had most success here in Romania”, remembers Șarlea. “More than 100 Romanian electricians have worked through us for North Sea projects. Together with our clients we trained and developed them to become what they are now – competent and qualified cable jointers and workers. In fact, this is such a success that we are now in the process of setting up a training center here in Bucharest. This will ensure we can train and develop new members of our team prior to mobilization and let them get used to the project, the client and the work at hand. The training center will address the potential of the onshore and offshore development in Romania following the 11th round of exploration rights, recently announced in 2019 supporting clients with all the necessary for developing in Romania – from consultancy on local compliance, legislative changes, manpower, recruitment, headhunt, to all the necessary licenses for a compliant working environment.”
“Going forward we would like to invest more in developing and delivering a program of knowledge transfer, competency management and training”, says Nick Nooren, COO WTS Energy. “We will set up this program for our consultants working across the energy value chain from upstream offshore to midstream, downstream and the renewables sector. Because it is all about people.”