In order to improve our long-term access to skilled local labour in the country - particularly personnel with expertise in offshore gas exploitation - we have been investing in a skills-development and technology transfer programme in Venezuela since 2005.
Venezuela has a long tradition of exploration for and production of crude oil, successfully developing extra-heavy crude oil, which was believed to be at the far frontier of what was possible. Nevertheless, the country is rather new to the exploitation of offshore gas resources. Because of our vast experience and leadership in this area, offshore gas development was identified as an area for collaboration on technology and expertise transfer.
In December 2005, an agreement was entered into with the Universidad Simón Bolívar (USB) with the intention of designing and offering a university-level programme in natural gas engineering. To further this goal, we also brokered a memorandum of understanding between USB and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) to promote exchanges and the sharing of both teaching and research resources in the field of natural gas engineering.
By 2006, a two-year graduate-level specialisation programme in natural gas engineering had been developed in order to train specialists in the natural gas sector and enable them to gain a comprehensive technical understanding of all components in the natural gas value chain.
The training, which focused on offshore gas development, included courses on the production, transportation, conditioning, processing and liquefaction of natural gas.
One important feature of the graduate programme is the participation of key Venezuelan institutions involved in managing the oil and gas sector in the country, such as the Ministry of Energy and PDVSA, the Venezuelan National Oil Company, as well as private companies and local consultants.
The first group of students - 23 in all - began their studies in April 2006 and they are expected to graduate by the second quarter 2008. The second group of students started their studies in May 2007 and will graduate in 2009.
