The Rumaila oilfield in south Iraq is the greatest single contributor to the nation’s GDP. However, as a state-owned operation managed by a joint-venture between BP, PetroChina and the Basra Oil Company, misconceptions about the way the field operates were prevalent among its many stakeholders.

These include government ministers, employees, prospective suppliers, the media and perhaps most important of all, the Iraqi people who the oilfield ultimately serves. The field has a continuous need to communicate its challenges and accomplishments to these very different audiences – whose ongoing support is vital for the success of the operation.

Corporate websites’ webpages often provide only dry, dispassionate information. Given the disparate audiences, many of whom were sceptical of the beneficial impact of BP and PetroChina, we realised the need to have a navigation that was geared towards demonstrating the way the field was helping Iraq.

We also recognised that in order to resonate with each audience, a humble tone, inclusive language and the power of story-telling to reveal the human side of the operation would be vital.

The website’s navigation is simply designed with four sections: ‘About Us’, ‘Serving Iraq’, ‘The Operation’, and ‘News and Stories’.

While the ‘About Us’ and ‘The Operation’ sections are laced with references that explain this is an Iraqi operation, the dedicated ‘Serving Iraq’ section has five separate pages on the different ways the operation specifically helps the country: prioritising the content most important to our stakeholders. Finally, the ‘News and Stories’ section is an evolving repository for stories of individual endeavours by staff, community aid initiatives and technology firsts for the field.

Stories are now regularly added to boost traffic, maintain search engine optimisation and, above all, communicate the important narrative that this is an operation driven by people dedicated
to supporting Iraq.