CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited (CPGL) is supporting the University of Guyana’s Institute for Energy Diplomacy (IED) to fund 18 scholarships for Professional Executive Energy Training.

According to a release, this 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 Institute of Energy Diplomacy, will enable individuals from remote areas of Guyana to undertake upskilling in energy economics, finance, management and law.

Nine of the 18 scholarships are being awarded to applicants from the Amerindian tribes and areas outside of the Georgetown area. 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 grant was presented by the President of CNOOC, Mr. Liu Xiaoxiang at the company’s Georgetown office and received by Founding Director, UGIED Alex Armogan; UG’s Vice-Chancellor XI, Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin; and Director of UG’s Berbice Campus, Professor Subramanian Gomalthinayagam. At the handing over ceremony, President 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.”

GREAT SIGNIFICANCE
UG’s Vice-Chancellor XI, 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”. This kind of support not only supports the national thrust, but allows more of our people to get involved more quickly so that they can begin to benefit from the industry.

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

The Institute for Energy Diplomacy launched its Professional Executive Training programme 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 university’s energy executive courses are 100 per cent 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 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.

EXCELLENT ACCELERATED PRODUCTION
Professor Mohamed Martin has noted 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 seven years to four 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. The university, along with several other players, are working assiduously to fill this gap in similar record time.

The university, whose national mandate is to equip the nation with the workforce needed for national development, is responding through a number of initiatives, one of which is the Institute for Energy Diplomacy and also a Masters in Supply Chain Management.

The institute offers critical short courses to augment other undergraduate and post-graduate degree offerings in the university’s faculties.
CNOCC has been one of the university’s solid international partners in its quest for addressing key training and national needs at this critical juncture. According to the university, the company’s funding to the Institute for Energy Diplomacy Energy Executive Course Scholarships will have a nationwide capacity-building impact and specifically, an impact on energy education in Indigenous and underserved areas.

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).