Centre enhances regional skills

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His Excellency Youssef Omair bin Youssef (left), and Andrew Gould, attend the official inauguration ceremony for the centre in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Schlumberger have launched a joint initiative in Abu Dhabi: the Schlumberger Middle East and Asia Learning Center.

Built on land donated by ADNOC, the centre includes a custom-built training rig as well as other facilities dedicated to training for the oil and energy industry. The centre is the fourth of its type and joins existing facilities in the US, UK and France.

"ADNOC takes great pride in having this facility in Abu Dhabi, where our engineers and technical staff can have access to acquaint themselves with latest technology solutions," said His Excellency Youssef Omair bin Youssef, secretary general of the Supreme Petroleum Council and CEO of ADNOC.

The new facility has classrooms, workshops, laboratories and field technical equipment. It will provide Schlumberger and ADNOC professionals, and students of the Petroleum Institute, with basic and advanced skills development. The centre will focus on skills and techniques related to the oilfield upstream sectors. It will include such areas as data service, software, seismic, reservoir evaluation, cementing, stimulation, directional drilling, measurements while drilling and artificial lift.

"Every year, we hire many newly-qualified engineers and technicians who have yet to acquire industry experience," said Andrew Gould, chairman and CEO, Schlumberger. "Our challenge is to train and develop these new employees as efficiently as possible in one of the Schlumberger service disciplines, using the latest training techniques. And our goal is to ensure that our new employees have access to the same training and development opportunities regardless of where they come from and where they are going to be assigned."

The centre's construction started in 2005. Phase 1 was completed with an investment of US $40 million, which will reach US $60 million at completion of phase 2 towards mid-2007. Phase 3 will include accommodation and the whole project will cost around US $100 million.

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