From marine chemistry to petrochemicals and now onshore operations in Qatar, Vanda Franco has built a remarkable 22-year career across STEM disciplines — one defined by continuous learning, boundary-breaking perseverance, and a passion for advancing machinery health. Today, as Associate Manager of Onshore Operations at Petrotec, she leads efforts to elevate oil and machine condition monitoring, drive maintenance excellence, and strengthen reliability practices across the region’s energy sector.
In this interview, Vanda reflects on her unconventional career path, the unique opportunities emerging in the Middle East’s evolving energy landscape, and the importance of collaboration, partnerships, and technology adoption in achieving operational sustainability and uninterrupted performance.
Vanda, could you share your career journey and what led you to your current role as Associate Manager of Onshore Operations at Petrotec?
My journey has been far from linear, but as a Chemist I had the opportunity to exploring different opportunities, developing my knowledge and experience within STEM for the past 22 years – 14 years in Portugal and already 8 years in Qatar.
Considering that I always wanted to be a nurse I chose Sciences’ area in high school, however, I got passionate by chemistry degree program! After finishing my degree, I had opportunity to work in Marine Chemistry research while taking the Master ‘s degree in Marine Biology, then I moved to pharmaceutical industry, starting from scratch. Whiling to learn more and give my contribute to the next company, it was time to move to Petrochemical company, where I also completed a Post graduation in Laboratory Management.
Due to personal/family decisions, I moved to Qatar in 2017 where I started as teacher in a nursery. At that time, it was not easy for a woman to get a job in industry in GCC, a very-male populated area. In 2018 I had the opportunity to join Oil Care services provider company (ex OTQ, present TSR) under Petrotec, where I am until today. Continuously learning, questioning, developing and dedicating time to improve how we approach Oil and Machine Condition monitoring, led me to grow and have the current position. I say that in Qatar I became “the nurse of turbo machinery”.
What unique opportunities do you see in the Middle East’s energy sector for advancing operational excellence and sustainability?
The Middle East’s energy sector has a good combination of capital, energy infrastructure, land space to continue building and developing. Each country has a national policy to invest in renewables, hydrogen, carbon management, and digital operation models that creates distinctive opportunities to advance both operational excellence and sustainability across Oil & Gas, Power & new-energy sectors.
In Qatar, for example, there is one of the largest Solar PV power projects in the region and is set to significantly reduce its environmental footprint. It will produce 10% of its peak electricity demand, reduce gas dependency and save natural gas used in traditional power plants. Over its lifespan, it will also enable Qatar to reduce its CO2 emissions by 26 million metric tons.
The Middle East’s energy sector has a good combination of capital, energy infrastructure, land space to continue building and developing.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the UAE Energy Strategy 2050 are setting ambitious targets for renewable energy adoption. Saudi Arabia aims for 50% of electricity from renewables, while the UAE plans to triple its renewable capacity to 14 GW by 2030.
Oman launched the Net Zero Centre, which operates under the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, for the preparation and continuous updating of the national plan to achieve net-zero emissions. The Centre is also responsible for defining and updating Oman’s national strategy to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and accelerate the development of renewable energy sector.
How do you balance asset reliability and maintenance efficiency while ensuring uninterrupted operations?
By understanding the alarms, focusing on actual issues, finding the root causes, supporting precision maintenance and building a culture “Doing it right first time”.
We frequently hear “Machine is not having symptoms, so I let it run!” or “Machine is having symptoms, but oil analysis has NORMAL results”.
An efficient maintenance is not just keeping the machines running, it’s about understanding each alarm; using the data obtained from lubricant analysis, machine symptoms, maintenance activities and having the different teams, Maintenance, Operations, Reliability and Condition monitoring, collaborating and evaluating each trend to avoid possible future failures. Real value is created when we align all our resources with responsibility.
Real value is created when we align all our resources with responsibility.
Some of our recommendations applied by different customers with success, to ensure uninterrupted operation, are; contamination control by filtration, changing the system filters or using external on-line filtration skid to address the contaminant – Particles, Water or Varnish; clean the contaminated system in advance for a planned oil change, while the system is still in operation, and use external skid with high-flow pump for a proper flushing during oil change, preventing cross-contamination and rapid oil degradation of new charge of oil after re-starting the machine.
Reliability provides the structure and evidence to ensure that there is added value, and the asset performs as required.
How important are partnerships and collaboration for driving innovation in onshore oil and gas operations?
We value our partnerships to bring more and sustainable solutions for our onshore and offshore customers. Working together we can understand the actual problem, ask the right questions and find the root causes prior recommending the best approach. The collaboration makes us to providing support with competency and applying the correct sustainable solution / technology in Oil & Gas, Chemical, Energy and Power Plant customers on achieving their Lubrication Excellence, avoiding failures in their Rotating Equipment, avoiding unexpected shutdowns, reducing the waste of lubricants and associated costs, improving their carbon footprint.
Since 2012, Qatar has seen an increase on the application of new technologies related with lubrication and reliability due to the different partnerships between Qatari companies and overseas companies. Different oil laboratories, inside industry and private ones, are investing and expanding their offer to fulfil the requirements and provide a comprehensive oil analysis report. Oil life extension became a mindset by applying new technologies and using customized products. Service providers are collaborating and investing in vibration measurement instruments by ultrasound.
Lubricants have become an asset, they are no longer a consumable!
Why are events like Lubricant Expo Middle East important for your industry?
Beyond getting to know SMEs in person, building and making deeper connections, it’s also an occasion to learn with other industries, share our experiences and know-how from Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and improve how we approach reliability.
Our company is constantly striving for an efficient performance of our services, to continue supporting our customers with best solutions. Every day there is a new issue, a new challenge, a new opportunity to improve.
Don’t miss the opportunity to hear Vanda Franco live at Lubricant Expo Middle East, taking place 20–22 January 2026 in Dubai. Vanda will be speaking in the session, Integrating Lubrication Data with Other Asset Management Data on Day 2 of the event, 21 January from 10:30am – 12:00pm. 🔗 View the full agenda here.
