mid
Member
Posts: 16
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Post by mid on Jun 23, 2012 16:26:53 GMT
JamRock
Agree it is unfair treat and very little has the pleasure to choose where to stay a part from our US or CAN passport holders colleagues. Yes lots of houses are empty in DH camp and many will vacant soon but they are reserved for the potential lovely US and Canadian passport holders colleagues future join. Neither RT nor ABQ expats feels comfort with the 3 hours commute and have to wake up as early as 4:30 and back home by 17:30, we however can look at it differently and just enjoy the facilities present in both camps for the next couple of years (contract duration) and also neither camp are as busy as DH. Allocated houses in RT and ABQ are mostly larger than what it would be allocated in DH for the same family. I hear that ARAMCO is planning to build lots of new houses in DH which should start soon. I hope this is finishes quick!
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Post by Asterix on Jun 24, 2012 12:16:44 GMT
This housing issue seem to be a critical point : I don't want to comment on the passport holder housing rule (I don't even know if its a real rule or just some kind of general use), but I think Aramco has to work on solving this issue if they want to attract "talents". I am not speaking about my self (since I didn't reach the offer step for now) but just a general thinking.
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Post by GroveWanderer on Jun 26, 2012 10:36:20 GMT
JamRock,
I am based in Dhahran (I do not have a US passport though, and was with the company 10 years before I got the out-of-policy approval for on-camp family housing here) so I don't commute from Abqaiq but I have driven the route many times.
I should point out that my post was in response to people saying that various estimates of the time required had been posted, ranging from 45 mins to 1.5 hours.
So the only reason I mentioned breaking the speed limit was because of the previous suggestion that it was possible to get from Abqaiq to Dhahran in 45 mins. I wanted to point out that to do that, you would have to break the speed limit.
If you're trying calculate anything, you have to establish some parameters. I did say you could use somewhere in Abqaiq community and somewhere in Dhahran as the start and end points, so in your case, you could use your home and your office. If I knew where your home and office were located, perhaps I could have used those as a start and end point - but since I don't have that information, I could hardly do so. Again, I was referring to a previous figure given in an earlier post, of a 45 min driving time which to my mind, would only be possible if you were counting it as from main gate to main gate.
Well, maybe we have been on different buses, with different drivers. The inter-area buses I have been on have always surprised me by how fast they were driving.
Dhahran could never be absolutely full. There are always empty houses - a certain number of houses are always undergoing renovation (whenever someone leaves, or moves house, for instance) or waiting for renovation. And if they ever did fill up every single house in Dhahran, that would create various headaches - nowhere to put new hires, nowhere to temporarily house people whose houses are undergoing emergency or major maintenance or renovation, no chance to renovate houses between residents, nowhere to house people temporarily assigned to Dhahran, etc.
What I would say, is that Dhahran is as full as I have seen it in my time here.
For what it's worth, I keep hearing rumours that they're going to build a bunch of new houses in Dhahran (some say as many as 500). I have no definite confirmation on that though.
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Post by Hadia on Jun 26, 2012 15:23:28 GMT
Is the rumoured new housing in the south end of the DH camp where all the moved earth piles are located?
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Post by GroveWanderer on Jun 27, 2012 11:11:47 GMT
Although earlier on, I didn't have any any definitive source, I just checked with the Community Information Center and was told that the construction work going on in the area between Riyal Road and the ESD connector road (roughly opposite the Hobby Farm) is indeed the start of the new housing construction.
They didn't have any info on numbers of housing units, types of housing or planned completion date, however.
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Post by Lulu22 on Jun 27, 2012 14:26:58 GMT
o JamRock, looks like we might also be moving to Abqaiq from the UK soon. We finally got word that SAMSO and BI is cleared, so we are at the visa stage now. My husband is German, and even though I am Canadian no chance to get into DH. ;-) But I think you are right and that a lot of expats will be filling up Abqaiq in the next months...
At this point we are still enthusiastic, but my husband and I are thinking seriously about how the commute will affect the daily life. Abqaiq itself sounds ok, but a 13-hour workday and life-threatening commute was not what we thought this opportunity would mean for the family...
-- Is the bus comfortable at least? In other words, would there be at least a chance to really relax during the drive between DH and ABQ?
-- Do most people in Abqaiq take the bus, or are there lots that drive (a big 'safe' car/SUV)?
-- Any speculations towards how soon a more flexible schedule might be implemented?
Any comments would be appreciated!Thanks!
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Post by Lulu22 on Jun 27, 2012 19:05:59 GMT
What about a private road from Abqaiq to Daharan only for Aramco employees and the commute buses?? This would be a great way to cut down the commute time and let others drive their own cars safely... Sure, it is a big project and would be expensive, but as a long term solution it would be the best one. Maybe people wouldn't be so reluctant to live in Abqaiq if such a road existed. Hoping someone can pass this idea along to upper management? :-)
Just brainstorming...
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Post by halfwaythere on Jun 29, 2012 19:29:38 GMT
I read some of the posts suggesting that only North American Payrolls get to live in DH. I am from US and just received an offer with residence in ABQ and work in DH. Is it worth an effort to negotiate a residence in DH based on what you all were stating? Commuting is not one of my favorite things to do.
Thanks a bunch
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Post by Hadia on Jun 29, 2012 20:05:46 GMT
I would never assume that people's anecdotal supposed observations about how the various camps are populated should be assumed as anything close to accurate from an HR perspective. In our neighborhood in Dhahran, we have several families NOT from the US or Canada. People in this forum sometimes generalize based on how they view things, and on what might be a very limited view of their surroundings.
Prospective employees are, of course, free to try to negotiate whatever they want through the new hire process. Indeed, that commute would get old fast.
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Post by halfwaythere on Jun 29, 2012 20:14:11 GMT
Thanks Hadia
I just have two worries about ABQ- commute and air quality due to near by crude processing facility ( as folks call it here in this forum). I have a 5 year old and a wife who has perpetual sinus issues. So it would have been much nicer to be in DH - but hey what can I do if the place is full.
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CACA
Member
Posts: 11
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Post by CACA on Jun 30, 2012 1:53:01 GMT
I would agree with the above posts. Holding a US/Canadian passport will not assure you to reside in DH only. We are also Canadians but we will be residing in UDH . Hope that helps
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Post by Hadia on Jun 30, 2012 3:49:45 GMT
My young son and I both have severe allergies and asthma, but I assumed that moving to what we thought would be a primarily arid environment in Dhahran, away from processing facilities, would be a relief for our symptoms, when compared with the industrialized area of North America where we were living. In fact, our symptoms have worsened here in Dhahran, so we discovered that there are no guarantees or assurances on air quality anywhere. True, the air quality issue we deal with has little to do with petroleum, however, it is significant and we weren't prepared to understand it until living here -- the complications of fine dust in the air, and also rapid changes in humidity, and how those affect people with allergies and asthma. The onset of an asthma attack here can be rapid and severe enough to send you to hospital, particularly if you are caught off guard without a mask and medications.
We also have been experiencing new allergy issues as a result of pollen from trees whose native locales are all around the world, and that are planted here. It seems there's always something blooming, causing people's allergies and sinuses to act up. Not to mention the myriad viruses that are passed dutifully and constantly at the schools and offices, especially right after Eid or school breaks when people do a lot of international traveling and bring back fun new germs to share. We have had some relief by shipping in air filters from the US for the AC vents, at the urging of a doctor here at Aramco. The smell of petroleum is rare in Dhahran, but the dust, pollen, humidity, etc. are constant, and wreak havoc on the sinuses and lungs, so even Dhahran is not a haven if you suffer from regular sinusitis. Bringing a nasal irrigation kit would be a good idea for a sinus patient.
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Post by vpainter on Jun 30, 2012 6:50:14 GMT
JamRock, you misunderstood me. ABQ is not outside Aramco. It is an Aramco compound.
I said some people choose to live outside of Aramco (Dhahran for clarification). They live in compounds outside of camp. Aramco gives them a housing allowance and they rent for themselves so they do not have to make the drive from ABQ or RT.
FYI for everyone: DHA has many nationalities living inside the compound as do each of the compounds.
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mid
Member
Posts: 16
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Post by mid on Jun 30, 2012 15:31:18 GMT
Housing rules say: for anyone else than US or CAN there is a need to have a minimum grade 15 to be considered in DH camp. So looking at this rule we will note the difference.
Just ask ur neighbors when they have started or their grade or when they have moved to DH. DH camp has different nationalities same as other camps.
I same as others really appreciate if people in this forum not to jump to answer if they simply don’t know or accuse others of providing misleading info.
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Post by azraeil on Jul 1, 2012 5:25:58 GMT
Dhahran is full. Ras Tanura is also full or they have reserved some of the houses for the Dow-Chemical Saudi Aramco refinery projects. That is probably why almost all people get sent to Abqaiq.
If you follow the IR manual closely (The UK one especially). It is specified clearly that Dhahran is for the Specialist camp (GC15 and above) and Doctors. I think housing now is implementing this rule more strictly than before. I came here on GC13 and was lucky enough to get into Dhahran. Some of my colleagues from the same nationality were sent to Ras Tanura even though they had a higher GC than me. Most of them however have moved into Dhahran as our SVP requested that ALL core personnel (Geophysicists, Geologist, Petroleum & resevoir engineers) be given priority in housing in Dhahran.
Previously Housing allotted at least 10-20 percent as some sort of emergency houses as after 5 years, you can request for your house to be refurbished and if it's a major refurbishment, you can actually request to move temporarily to these "houses" so that's probably why you see empty houses.
Saudi Aramco also used SAP extensively and it's connected to everything in the company. Once an offer letter is sent out, housing is immediately assigned and the house is immediately taken offline from any bidding process etc etc so imagine if the employee only comes after 6-8 months, then you will see those houses empty until the employee arrives.
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