EDUCATING and training people to work in natural gas fields will be a long and arduous process, environmental scientist at the Cyprus University of Technology, Alexis Charalambides has said.
It was announced last week that exploratory hydrocarbons drilling by Houston based company Noble in Cyprus’ Aphrodite field indicate an estimated gross resource range of five to eight trillion cubic feet. The announcement opens a whole host of new career opportunities for Cypriots said Charalambides. But he and other experts agree the process will take time.
Cyprus needs to create the educational infrastructure to train a local labour force in related industries, said Panos Papanastasiou, the University of Cyprus professor and member of the group of experts appointed to advise the government.
The University of Cyprus is looking to introduce graduate courses in petroleum engineering in September 2012 with undergraduate courses probably introduced in September 2013.
In addition to petroleum engineering, the university plans to create courses in chemical engineering, sub-sea development and in fields related to offshore structures, Papanastasiou said.
“In about five years there will be several home-grown petroleum engineers and we will have our first undergraduates in fields such as chemical engineering,” Papanastasiou said.
But Charalambides warned that it will take a decade before these people accumulate enough experience to take more senior positions.
“We also might currently lack in numbers all the necessary professors and experts to manage such academic departments, who will we need to attract to Cyprus,” Charalambides said.
And creating the academic departments to handle new courses is only the first step, Charalambides said.
“We must not mislead students into thinking that as soon as they graduate from their studies they will be hired by Noble or be given a top position working in the industry,” Charalambides said.
“Big companies who have had years of experience are not looking to hire people with just theoretical background,” Charalambides said adding that local staff will need to accumulate practical experience and training before they are able to take over from foreign experts.
The Electricity Authority of Cyprus’ (EAC) general manager Stelios Stylianou agreed.
“Creating a four year course does not mean that you’ll have a bunch of graduates ready to do everything: they will have to be integrated in large projects and trained in big companies handling natural gas fields in the world,” Stylianou said.
Stylianou said that it was more realistic to educate people at home, send them abroad to work on site and accumulate experience and then bring them back home to work in the industry.
“There are technical, commercial, administrative, legal issues from across the spectrum to consider,” Stylianou said.
Stylianou said that given the size of the island, “complete independence from foreign companies, experts and outside technical support could not be done”.
“In my opinion, we cannot cover all niche positions but we can slowly work to increase our presence and maximise home potential,” Stylianou said.
The EAC has already trained its local staff in natural gas handling as unit 4 and 5 of Vassilikos power station – damaged in the summer naval base explosion – are able to handle natural gas.
“We extract a commitment in our contracts with companies to train local staff on all levels so they can gradually take over,” Stylianou said adding that the EAC incurred the training expenses.
“People for example will need to go to Houston to get hands-on experience,” Stylianou said.
Both Charalambides and Stylianou stressed that it was absolutely imperative to handle natural gas prospects carefully and by incorporating long-term strategy.
Where education is concerned the state should start now, Charalambides said.
“For example, the two best civil engineers should be given scholarships to get a master’s degree in petroleum engineering abroad, the best two lawyers should get training to handle legal issues, and so on,” Charalambides said.
And new courses “will give us the academic knowledge we need before training,” Stylianou said.
A case in point is a five day ‘MBA’ course in oil and gas which will be held later this month in Nicosia by Hear & Know Consultants in collaboration with a UK based management consulting firm serving the energy industry. It aims to provide understanding of how the petroleum business works.
