Offshore staff
DOHA, Qatar –Technology is a key to finding and producing oil in the Middle East, Stephane Michel, Total E&P Qatar managing director, told an audience at the 2013 Offshore Middle East Conference & Exhibition in Doha.
Whether new reserves or enhance recovery, many Middle East fields are mature and do not produce as readily as when new, and lend themselves to new approaches, he said.
Finding safe, new ways to increase production will only happen if the industry has good geoscientists, engineers, and skilled workers to invent, develop, and operate the new technology, he said. “Human resources are going to be a constraint, and the competition is going to be fierce,” Michel said. Industry needs to broaden its recruitment base to develop more competence, he added, but the future is optimistic, with a real demand from the population in Qatar to contribute to the solution by taking training.
He used Total’s LNG plant in Yemen as an example, pointing out that it is operated 90% by Yemenis who were groomed for the jobs in a two to three year training program.
1/22/2013
