ADNOC Drilling, an Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) subsidiary has marked the graduation of 333 Emiratis from its Drilling Training Centre.
The graduates are the latest batch to have completed their training at the centre. They will now play a role in ensuring efficient, reliable and safe onshore and offshore well-drilling operations, as ADNOC develops its drilling workforce, to support its objective of increasing oil production capacity.
A graduation ceremony, held at ADNOC Drilling’s Bida’a Al Oshaneh base, in Al Dhafra Region, was attended by Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO. He said this graduation, which takes the total number of graduates from the Drilling Training Centre to 1,000 UAE Nationals, was a landmark which underscored ADNOC’s commitment to invest in the development of young people, to enable them to seize the opportunities offered by digitisation in drilling and across the company’s operations.
“ADNOC’s training programmes aim to provide ADNOC with the technologically skilled workforce we will require to effectively deliver our 2030 smart growth strategy and to ensure we will continue to lead, thrive, and compete in the future,” Al Jaber said. “Efficient and safe drilling operations are critical in delivering ADNOC’s target to reduce well duration by 30%, by the end of 2019, and will help ensure we remain resilient in a changing energy environment as we optimise production costs and create greater returns from our upstream assets and resources.
“In parallel with the delivery of our strategic objectives, ADNOC is committed to playing its part in a sustainable and prosperous future for the nation, in line with the leadership’s directives, by providing skilled employment opportunities, for nationals that contribute to the development of the country’s broader knowledge economy.”
The Drilling Training Centre is unique in the region offering industry-specific training programmes and customised courses that address the latest in industry thinking and operations. The centre prepares ADNOC’s Emirati employees to operate rigs, while maintaining the highest levels of health and safety and asset integrity. The centre’s drilling rig simulation system helps familiarise trainees with the well-control operations of a rig and introduces them to the work environment in the drilling locations.
In the last 12 months, the Drilling Training Centre has received a number of endorsements from prominent organisations in the US, providing graduates with internationally accredited qualifications.
Established in 1972 as the National Drilling Company, ADNOC Drilling is one of the largest drilling contractors in the Middle East. Since 2010, when it had 28 rigs, it has expanded its operations three-fold, in response to customer demand, with 94 rigs in its fleet.
