Share

Unique training centre for ‘explorationists’ opens at University

exploHUB is a partnership between industry and academia to create a unique training programme dedicated to preparing exploration geoscientists for the challenge of unlocking the Earth’s remaining oil and gas reservoirs.

exploHUB will be formally opened on Friday 14 October by Steve Garrett, Manager of Chevron's European Technology Centre in Aberdeen and University Principal, Professor Ian Diamond. Steve is also President of the Petroleum Exploration Society Great Britain (PESGB), which is now a strategic partner with exploHUB, funding IT infrastructure and sponsoring a traineeship for 2012.

Welcoming the arrival of the new training centre, Steve says: “The objective of the PESGB is to promote, for the public benefit, education in the scientific and technical aspects of petroleum exploration. PESGB is delighted to support exploHUB’s start-up in 2011, and look forward to selecting and welcoming our PESGB exploHUB trainee in 2012. PESGB also values the continuing partnership with exploHUB’s Director and Board in helping to steer this exciting new venture.”

exploHUB’s director is Dr Stuart Archer, an exploration and production geologist with many years experience in the Atlantic Margin and Gulf of Mexico and in challenging reservoirs in the North Sea. Dr Archer says: “The University of Aberdeen aims to remain at the centre of geoscience training and research long after the last drop of oil has been produced from the North Sea.

“We know that most of the planet’s ‘easy’ hydrocarbons have been found. As a community we need to do something different to access the more complex reservoirs. We need a new generation of ‘explorationists’, equipped with the inquisitiveness, skills and creativity required to successfully discover what Earth may still be hiding from us. This is exactly what exploHUB is all about.”

Employers can interact with exploHUB in three ways: through offering early and mid-career employees the professional development opportunity offered by exploHUB, sponsoring a traineeship with the option to hire the trainee at the end of the nine-month postgraduate diploma, or giving this opportunity to a foreign national from a country where training obligations exist as part of licence awards or Production Sharing Agreements.

The challenges facing the industry are not only in the science. Exploration, like other parts of the industry, is facing what has been termed ‘the big crew change’, and will lose invaluable geoscience experience in the next 15 years or so. Dr Archer and his team are also interested in hearing from the ‘old hand’ resource of experienced geologists who are keen to get involved in passing on their exploration experience to the next generation of explorers.

exploHUB will hold an Open Day on 28 October from 10am-3pm at exploHUB, Meston Building (South Entrance), King’s College, University of Aberdeen.

All are invited to drop in, have a look around, meet the current trainees, and talk with exploHUB advisors, or visit www.abdn.ac.uk/explohub

149 views