This year’s International Petroleum Technology Conference included a hugely successful Education Week, which focused on creating a dialogue between the oil & gas industry and the best of the world’s young talent
The International Petroleum Technology Conference’s Education Week in Doha, attempted to bridge the gap between oil & gas industry employers and their future employees.
The week included the Energy Challenges, Education and Our Future project, which 100 of the brightest undergraduate scientists and engineers were invited to attend.
Twenty of the students were Qatari with 80 students joining them from places such as Norway, India and Nigeria.
The students attended lectures given by a host of industry specialists, including Shell Qatar’s vice president of human resources Jonathan Kohn, and Exxon Mobile’s energy advisor for strategic planning, David Khemakhem.
The students were divided into groups and asked to work on a series of industry specific projects, designed to showcase their talents. The week culminated with the students feeding back their solutions to the rest of the group and representatives from a range of oil majors.
A recent survey conducted by recruitment firm Bayt showed that the oil and gas industry was hugely attractive to young people in the GCC. Over 55% of those surveyed said that they believed the best financial packages available to them were in the oil & gas sector, while 44% said that the industry offered the best opportunity for career progression in the region.
At the recent Gulf Intelligence Forum in Abu Dhabi, 39% of delegates surveyed said that youth unemployment would be the source of the biggest economic challenge through to 2020.
ITPC Education Week helped to balance these differing perceptions by showcasing the abundance of global and regional talent available to the industry.
Oil and Gas Middle East meets the industry’s rising stars
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Sara Kaied
Sara Kaied is a 21 year old undergraduate at the University of Cairo’s Engineering Faculty.
Sara Kaied has some lofty ambitions for her career and is using the IPTC Education Week to get the ball rolling.
“The money you can earn depends on your career – if you work hard, you will get more money. It depends on the individual and the company you work for but, of course, everyone wants to earn a lot of money. My ambition is to be a professor in petroleum and one day to be a minister for energy. These companies can give me the experience I need for the future,” she said.
Like most of the students, Kaied put education at the top of her list of career priorities.
“Like I said, I want to be a minister of energy. To do that, I need to graduate from my faculty with an excellent grade and then take some more courses in Petroleum. After that, I would like to do a Masters degree in another country, maybe Dubai,” she said.
After education, Kaied believes that workplace experience is the next most crucial part of her resume.
“I want to gain experience from many companies, not only one. Everyone should have a variety of different experiences, to bring to their role. I think that is vitally inportant,” she said.
“I would like to end my career as a professor at a university and to help pass on my knowledge to others.”
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Jayati Desai
Jayati Desai is a chemical engineering graduate from Texas A&M University, Qatar.
This year, Desai is volunteering at the IPTC and sees it as an excellent way to start building contacts with the next generation of oil & gas workers.
Desai believes that the undergraduate training programs offered by the IOCs provide critical support at a crucial time in a graduate’s embryonic career.
“Because they have structured training programs, the big IOC’s pick you up from where you are and they take you to where you want to be,” she said.
Desai also believes that conferences such as IPTC provide a valuable opportunity for undergraduates to mingle with the industry’s influential key players.
“It’s a great networking opportunity. You rarely get to meet people of this stature in your daily life,” she said.
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Katarynzyna Siekiewicz
Katarynzyna Siekiewicz is currently studying for a Masters degree in drilling engineering at Norway’s University of Stravanger.
Orignally from Poland, Siekiewicz is now studying in Norway. Like many students who attended the conference, she was using the IPTC Education Week to gather information for her Master’s thesis and to network with her future colleagues.
Although the event was dominated by the IOC’s, Siekiewicz said that she would relish the opportunity to work for a smaller service company, either here in the Middle East or in Europe.
“I would like to work for a service company because with them you go straight into technical work. You go to the field, you work with the tools and equipment, so you get to see how the theory gets put into practice,” she said.
“I want to try to continue my education when I enter the practical industry. I want to enlarge my knowledge in a practical way. I want to work in the field as much as possible. I really want to learn more and become more and more professional as a drilling engineer. That is my passion,” she said.
Siekiewicz is flexible on the course her career will take. Should an offer of work come from an IOC, she is not likely to refuse.
“I am open minded. I just want to enlarge my knowledge and work with the best people in the industry,” she said.
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Joshua Jacob
Joshua Jacob attends India’s Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering. He is studying for his BTEC in petroleum engineering.
As one of India’s leading undergraduates, Jacob’s special area of interest is advanced slim hole well logging.
“I want to be unique. There are only 1500 engineers coming to the oil & gas industry from India each year. I want to assert myself and take control of my career,” he said.
Jacob has tremendous enthusiasm for the oil & gas industry and hopes to rise to the top quickly.
“I like challenges and I want to challenge myself. I also want to do something worthwhile with my life. I want to try to make a difference to the world,” he said.
Jacob is particularly interested in advanced slim hole well logging and believes that through this practice, the world’s supply of oil can be significantly increased.
“By 2090 all the world’s oil will be exhausted. With advanced slim hole well logging you can extend the life expectancy of the world’s oil reserves by 50 years,” he said.
Jacob said that he has been drawn to a career in the Middle East and would like to settle in the UAE eventually.
“I would prefer to work in the UAE. English is widely spoken and it is a very peaceful country,” he said.
