Khalid Al Asmi is a senior energy and petrochemical executive with more than two decades of experience spanning operations, asset management, transformation, and strategic leadership.
As CEO of OQ Base Industries, he is focused on strengthening performance, governance, sustainable growth, and long-term industrial value creation.

Executive Leadership at OQ Base Industries

Khalid Al Asmi has built an extensive leadership career across Oman’s energy and petrochemical landscape, progressing through increasingly senior operational, technical, and executive roles.

Since September 2024, he has served as Chief Executive Officer of OQ Base Industries (OQBI) in Salalah. In this role, he leads the company’s overall strategy, performance, governance, operational excellence, financial performance, safety, and risk management.

His mandate also includes leading OQBI’s transition and ongoing responsibilities as a publicly listed company, working closely with the Board of Directors, shareholders, regulators, and other key stakeholders.

Two Decades of Energy Sector Leadership

Before becoming CEO of OQBI, Khalid held a series of senior leadership positions across OQ and its downstream operations.

His previous roles include Managing Director of OQ Salalah, Acting Chief Operating Officer of OQ RPI, Vice President Technical Services Downstream, Vice President Downstream Maintenance, and Operations General Manager of the Aromatics Complex.

These positions provided extensive exposure to large-scale industrial assets, technical services, maintenance, refinery operations, process optimization, safety, reliability, and capital management.

Managing Complex Industrial Assets

As Vice President Technical Services Downstream, Khalid led technical services across OQ’s downstream assets in Oman, encompassing major refineries, aromatics, ethylene, plastics, methanol, LPG extraction, storage and distribution terminals, pipelines, utilities, and supporting infrastructure.

The portfolio represented more than US$10 billion in asset value, requiring strong coordination across process engineering, reliability, asset integrity, project development, process safety, technical integrity, and project delivery.

Delivering Transformation and Value

Khalid also played a key role in the integration of Oman Oil and ORPIC following the 2018 integration programme.

As Quick Wins Lead within the Integration Management Office, he helped drive initiatives designed to generate additional value for the newly integrated group. The workstream achieved an initial US$100 million quick-win target in the first quarter of 2019, according to his professional profile.

The experience strengthened his expertise in transformation, stakeholder alignment, value creation, and organizational integration.

Operational Excellence as a Leadership Philosophy

Earlier in his career, Khalid led refinery operations at Sohar Refinery and held process engineering positions covering optimization, troubleshooting, energy conservation, technical studies, production performance, and capacity improvement.

This technical foundation continues to inform his executive approach—linking operational reliability, safety, performance, people development, and commercial value.

His leadership experience also includes board and governance responsibilities, including Chairman of the Board of OQ Logistics and participation in OQ talent and tender boards.

Building Future-Ready Organizations

Beyond operational performance, Khalid places emphasis on organizational capability and leadership development. His professional development includes executive programmes in transformational leadership, cultural change, change management, and executive leadership, alongside the Senior Executive Programme at London Business School.

He holds an MSc and BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham and is a Certified CMI Level 5 professional in Operations and Maintenance.

Recognition

Khalid Al Asmi’s career reflects the evolution of Oman’s energy sector from technical and operational excellence toward integrated industrial leadership, transformation, and sustainable value creation.

As CEO of OQ Base Industries, he brings more than two decades of experience to an executive mandate centered on performance, governance, safety, organizational capability, and long-term industrial growth—contributing to the continued development of Oman’s petrochemical sector.