Share

OPITO shares North Sea success story with Australian delegation

A MINISTERIAL delegation from Western Australia will be in Aberdeen today (Wednesday, July 13^th) on a fact-finding mission to learn how the North Sea carved its name as a leading global energy hub.

Ten government and industry representatives, including the Hon Peter Collier MLC, Minister for Energy, Training and Workforce Development, are visiting the city to hear from key organisations about how they could apply the skills lessons learned in the UK to further expand their own rapidly growing oil and gas industry.

The visit, which has been organised by the Trade and Investment Department of the Western Australian Government, comes just weeks after Aberdeen played host to a similar delegation from Australia’s Northern Territory.

Western Australia is the largest contributor to the country’s production of most petroleum products. Based largely on development of the reserves of the North West Shelf and other onshore hydrocarbon basins, the industry extracts crude oil, condensate and natural gas.

OPITO, the oil and gas industry’s focal point for skills, learning and workforce development, will give an insight into how the UK has shaped its skills base over the last 40 years and into how its products and services are developed to meet the needs of the sector.

An industry-funded and employer-led organisation, OPITO’s standards have been exported across the world, setting the benchmark for skills and competency in the global oil and gas industry.

Gillian Black, OPITO’s policy affairs director, said: “Western Australia is already a recognised oil and gas province with a large number of UK companies operating interests in the region.

“The State Government is committed to establishing Western Australia as a centre of excellence in the provision of technology and services to the gas and subsea industry sectors. As part of the mechanisms to address some of the current skills shortages, the Minister is keen to learn some of the methods  we, as a major skills training organisation, are employing to address the skills and labour issues that seem to be common to the offshore oil and gas industry itself.

“Aberdeen’s success story is recognised around the globe and we are delighted to be able to share the lessons learned during that journey with other developing areas.”

90 Views