The oil and gas industry in Guyana is rapidly expanding, and the country continues to place keen focus on local content; however, the lack of skilled personnel to meet the needs of the sector has been a challenge. The University of Guyana (UG) introduced its Department of Petroleum and a number of petroleum programmes and courses in 2019 in a bid to close the gap, and Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martins, has reported increased interest in these offerings, and disclosed that a number of new courses will be introduced next month.
The University currently offers two specialised programmes and several short, specialised courses in Petroleum. “We have an Associate in Petroleum Engineering and a Master’s in Petroleum Engineering ongoing now with a total of 39 students enrolled. We are about to advertise for the second cohorts. These programmes began in 2018-2019 Academic year,” Professor Mohamed-Martins explained.
The Associate of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering is being offered in collaboration with the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), while the Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering is being offered by the University of the West Indies (UWI) in collaboration with UG.
The University of Guyana has also reported that 29 students completed the first year of the Associate of Science in Petroleum Engineering and the Department has initiated discussions with UTT for a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum in 2021.
“Both [the] Associates and Masters in Petroleum Engineering programmes were fully subscribed,” the Vice Chancellor said.
In keeping with this drive to build the pool of Guyanese educated and trained in petroleum studies, the Vice Chancellor disclosed that beginning on March 1, 2021, the University will be offering several professional seminars and short programmes through the Institute for Energy Diplomacy at UG. Among the upcoming courses are Fundamentals of Oil and Gas Value Chain; Upstream Oil and Gas Business; Management of Oil and Gas Projects (fundamentals and advanced); Integrated Reservoir Management (fundamentals and advanced); Petroleum Production Systems (fundamentals and advanced); Maintenance Management (fundamentals and advanced) and Integral Reliability (fundamentals and advanced).
Fundamental and advanced short programmes in areas including Oil and Gas Law; Oil and Gas Accounting; Oil and Gas Monitoring and Evaluation; Oil and Gas Insurance; Natural Resource Wealth Fund; Comparative History of Oil and Gas; Fundamentals of Negotiating; Oil and Gas and Sustainability; Managing CSR and Local Content in Oil and Gas; Reporting on Oil and Gas; Financial Markets in Oil and Gas; HSSE and Oil and Gas data will also be delivered.
It was noted that these programmes will be administered by a mix of local and internationally accredited and recognised partners.
“UG worked for the last three years to map knowledge gaps and to tailor offerings to local and nation-specific interests with those academic and professional organisations with bona fide and proven extensive international experience in the field of oil and gas education,” Vice Chancellor Mohamed-Martins explained.
She said that thus far, government has provided 20 percent of the students in the Department with scholarships, and an increase is expected. The University is also working on other funding streams for applicants to the programmes who may have payment challenges.
