Stabroek Block company partnering with UG on 18 scholarships

CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited (CPGL), a partner in this country’s offshore Stabroek Block where at least 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent have been discovered is partnering with the University of Guyana (UG) for 18 scholarships valued at just over $4m.

CPGL is supporting the University of Guyana’s (UG) Institute for Energy Diplomacy (IED) to fund the scholarships for Professional Executive Energy Training that is currently being run by the IED. CPGL’s parent company is Chinese.

A joint release yesterday from UG and the company said that the initiative is part of UGIED’s aim to deliver energy upskilling in line with local content requirements and CPGL’s long-term commitment to help develop the technical capacity of Guyana and its people.

The 18 scholarships, to be coordinated by the IED, enable individuals from remote areas of Guyana to undertake upskilling in Energy Economics, Finance, Management, and Law.

Nine of the eighteen scholarships are being awarded to applicants from the Amerindian tribes and areas outside of the Georgetown area, the release said. This is in keeping with a fundamental aim of CNOOC International’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy - to support the education, training, and development of Indigenous communities locally and internationally.

The release said that the grant was presented by the President of CNOOC, Liu Xiaoxiang at the company’s Georgetown office and received by Founding

Director, UGIED, Alex Armogan, UG’s ViceChancellor, Prof. Paloma Mohamed Martin, and Director of UG’s Berbice Campus Prof. Subramanian Gomalthinayagam.

At the handing over ceremony, Liu remarked, “This signal of support is the beginning of a long-term partnership and

a relationship between CPGL and the University of Guyana. We view these scholarships in alignment with our philosophy of teaching our Guyanese counterparts how to fish. We envision that this programme will continue to grow.”

Mohamed Martin in expressing appreciation to CNOOC underscored “the great significance the University attaches to international and partner support in helping the national University meet its enormous mandate of rapidly supporting the creation of the talent needed to fulfill local content mandates”.

Armogan, the founding director of UGIED, highlighted the importance of establishing a long-term, sustainable relationship between CPGL and UGIED to educate and to prepare local students for jobs in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

The IED launched its Professional Executive Training in June 2021 and currently offers courses in Oil and Gas Value Chain, Energy Markets, Crude Oil Trading, and Energy Transport and Shipping. UGIED’s portfolio of courses are expected to expand with additions in Oil and Gas Project Planning and Management, Energy Project Investment and Finance, and Oil and Gas Contract Law and Negotiations, among others.

The release said that the University’s

Energy Executive courses are 100% online and are taught over two weeks by internationally respected experts and academics. Persons may opt for an exam or no exam mode. The certification and costs of the two options differ, the release said, adding that the main difference is that those taking the exams for course credits will have the option of adding these to other offerings with the University of Guyana for a postgraduate diploma in the future based on the modular framework of courses offered through the Institute for Energy Diplomacy.

Mohamed Martin said that Guyana, a new producer of oil and gas, has lost valuable upskilling time in key areas of the industry due to the “excellent accelerated production from the Stabroek licence. Cutting time from discovery to production from an average of 7 years to 4 years, a remarkable and beneficial leap for Guyana, has however created a temporary training gap and a steep learning curve in a complex industry that is completely new to the country”.

Interested persons can visit www.ugied.com or contact the Institute directly at ied@uog.edu.gy or +592 613 5776 for more information. Apply and register to the Institute for Energy Diplomacy’s Executive Courses via UG’s SRMS (https://turkeyenonline.uog. edu.gy/srms).