Twenty-four-year-old UAE national Naila Al Moosawi has become Emirates National Oil Company's (Enoc) first woman site manager.

"This appointment represents a breakthrough in the industry," said Hussain Sultan, group chief executive and board member, Enoc. "Naila is the first female UAE national to take up supervisory responsibilities at a service station in this country.

Naila, of Dubai, joins Enoc from Dubai International Airport where she was an air traffic controller, again the first and only women to hold the position in Dubai.

"I like breaking new ground," she said. "I loved my previous job a lot, but I am now looking forward to a very challenging career with Enoc. I want to learn about every possible aspect of it." She has been assigned to a new Enoc service station in Dubai.

Naila is following in the steps of the first group of UAE nationals who were appointed last year to managerial posts at Enoc sites. Currently more than 25 per cent of the Group's employees are UAE nationals.

Mother of a two-year-old daughter, Naila completed her secondary and high school in Wales before moving to Dubai to graduate from Cambridge High School. She then specialised in airport traffic at Dubai Aviation College.

Enoc, and its subsidiary Eppco, have an ambitious emiratisation target of appointing UAE nationals to half the group's posts by 2005.

"We are investing upwards of Dh50 million in training at every level and discipline, from accounting to engineering, marketing to information technology," said Sultan.

"The concept of emiratisation is not new to us. From the beginning it was always intended that Enoc and Eppco should and would become successful organisations managed and operated by qualified national citizens."