It is two years since the Fire Safety Engineering College of Oman set up a Well Engineering Training School in conjunction with PDO and the Oil Industry Training Board, and will be offering for the first time a Well Engineering Diploma course this September, according to sales and marketing manager John Whitehead.

‘‘The idea of the Diploma is to bring in young Omanis and GCC nationals and train them to a level where they are available for meaningful employment,’’ he said.

The Diploma course has been validated and accredited by the University of Lancashire in the UK and approved by the Ministry of Higher Education Oman and will cover subjects such as mechanical engineering, mathematics, communications and information technology, in addition to well engineering.

The College, set up in 1998 with an investment of approximately $20 million, has grown steadily and its School of Well Engineering now attracts customers from 19 countries for courses which include, but are not limited to, Rotary Drilling, Well Services, Blowout Prevention and HSE-related training.

The aim of the Well Engineering School is to provide the well engineering industry in Oman and the Gulf with high quality training for its workforce.

To achieve this aim, it recruits industry experts to deliver a variety of competence-based vocational courses.

The College, according to Whitehead, offers unique facilities for hands on training, including on-site fire fighting facilities and a ‘Trainwell’ simulation well, the only such facility in the Gulf and one of just a handful of such wells in the world which will employ high pressure air injection to simulate real well conditions.

Utilising a fully-operational IDECO Bir-800 Back-In Rambler desert rig, complete with mud circulation system, blow out preventers and full rig instrumentation, this realistic training tool enhances the crisis management and well control skills of students and raises confidence in their abilities, according to the College.

The well is deviated to approximately 35 degrees, is completed with 7" casing to 1,200m and can be operated with a 3.5" drillstring and bottom hole assembly for drilling operations training, or, after the removal of the drillstring, a 3.5" tubing string and completion can be run to enable well testing, wireline and coiled tubing training.

The College is targeting 40 per cent Omani students for its Diploma course, with the rest coming from outside the country.

‘‘The Well Engineering Diploma has been well received by the industry,’’ Whitehead insists, adding that higher oil prices have stimulated regional upstream activity and hence business for the College from both within Oman and elsewhere in the Gulf.

The rationale behind setting up the Well Engineering School in 1999 stemmed from the ongoing and fast-paced development of OmanÕs oil and gas resources which will increasingly require highly skilled well engineering professionals.

The College is convinced that Omanis and GCC Nationals will play a key role in the demanding well services sector in the country in years to come, eventually replacing expatriate well engineers. The college is also said to be looking to Iran, Libya and Yemen as potential markets for new recruits.