I don't know how many of you saw this article in the "Hydroprocessing" magazine
or whether you subscribe to the magazine. Rae Bareilly? - What does it have to
do with oil industry? Those in this net who lick Nehru/Gandhi boots - time for
you to think.
Why didn't Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan or Orissa get the honors of hosting this
institute? Did Tarun Gogoi pay obeissance, "as you say, Ma'am".
Dilip Deka
==================================
Engineers will be trained in specialized petroleum courses such as energy
exploration and refining activities
Jeetha DSilva and Gayatri Ramanathan
Mumbai: Facing a stubborn labour shortage, the energy sector plans to
groom its own talent: by launching educational institutes.
The industry has taken the first steps to start a handful of institutes for
petroleum engineers and to train them in both upstream (oil and gas
exploration) and downstream (refining) activities.
These initiatives, also supported by the government, could sharply increase
the number of students graduating with skills specific to the oil and gas
sector, starting in 2009. So far, most Indian petroleum engineers have trained
either at the Indian Institute of Petroleum at Dehradun in Uttarakhand , or at
the Indian School of Mines at Dhanbad in Jharkhand.
Over the next five years, the need for trained geoscientists for exploration
operations alone is pegged at 6,181, said a study conducted by consultant firm
PricewaterhouseCoopers for Petrofed, an association of public sector oil
companies. The shortfall will be about 2,844 geoscientists. The current
surpluses in some categories of geoscientists are also poised to change into an
acute shortage as early as next year. According to the same study, the overall
gap between availability and requirement of trained energy industry manpower in
India is projected to be about 36,000 by 2019 with existing institutes unable
to meet this increasing demand for technical manpower in the petroleum sector.
While the number seems small, compared to much larger shortages that other
industries such as the outsourcing industry dish out, many of these jobs in the
petroleum sector are highly specialized with shortages having a major impact in
a sector that is a national priority.
The education initiatives mark the first of their kind for energy studies,
with the largest being the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology,
structured along the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). The
institute is being set up in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, with an investment of
some Rs500 crore, funded by the government and public sector oil companies.
Oil marketer Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) is spearheading the initiative
on behalf of all the PSUs, said D.M. Reddy, executive director for BPCL human
resources. He said once the institute is fully operational, it will have seven
programmes offering bachelors in technology, six integrated masters degrees,
eight masters in technology, along with MBA and 12 post-graduate diplomas and
PhD programmesall related to oil and gas.
Reddy, who is also the president of the board of trustees appointed by the
ministry of petroleum to anchor the institute, predicts the instituteto
commence in Rae Bareli and New Delhi in 2008will emerge as the only one to
comprehensively address the talent needs of the oil and gas ­industries.
There is already a big gap (between) demand and supply for trained engineers
in exploration and production (E&P) which will only widen with a growth in
demand, he said. The institute will mitigate this talent crunch. He said the
institute expects to enroll 2,400 students, with 900 graduating every year.
Located on a 125-acre campus, it hopes to collaborate with foreign institutes
for both student and faculty exchange.
A new course has also been launched at IIT Bombay, focusing on specialized
skills for the petroleum industry. Earlier, we had a post-graduate programme
in geo-exploration and some of these graduates would join the oil and gas
industry, said P.K. Saraswati, head, department of earth sciences. But,
because of the growing demand for specialized skills, we decided to launch an
M.Tech programme in petroleum geosciences from this year onwards.
The IIT course is supported by energy company BG India Ltd, a part of BG
Group Plc. The company will provide funds for visiting faculty from global
institutes in the field as well as fund two students. It will also support the
institutes laboratory to develop facilities in petroleum geoscience.
IIT Bombay may look at expanding its scope of collaboration with the industry
for this programme.
This course cannot be offered in isolation. We have to work with the
industry, said Saraswati.
In addition, a few private institutes, such as the University of Petroleum
and Energy Studies in Dehradun and the Deen Dayal Institute in Ahmedabad, have
recently started offering courses also. Reliance Industries Ltd is also
planning two dedicated institutes for training engineers in upstream and
downstream operations.
The talent crunch faced by the industry is here to stay, said Puneet Singh, a
partner in Executive Access, a headhunting firm with an oil and gas practice.
The move to set up new training for the sector institutes will certainly
mitigate the talent crunch at the entry level, he said. But, in the short
term, public sector companies will continue to lose people at midddle and
senior levels.
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