CENTRICA, the parent company of British Gas, together with Qatar Petroleum is celebrating the company’s UK-based exchange programme that has opened up new avenues of collaboration and transfer of knowledge and exchange for young professionals from the Qatari oil and gas industry.

Since 2010, the exchange programme between the UK’s largest gas buyer and Qatar Petroleum has welcomed six QP trainees. The programme, based at Centrica’s Windsor headquarters as well as various other locations around the UK, is tailor-made to individual requirements and is tasked with training a new generation of highly-capable Qatari industry leaders in one of the most sophisticated gas consuming markets anywhere in the world.

The training initiative solidifies the already strong relationship between Centrica and QP, as both organisations look to further take advantage of the emerging opportunities in the global gas market.

Centrica signed a major new gas supply deal with Qatargas worth £2 billion ($3.18 billion). The three-year deal secured a supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) equivalent to 10 per cent of the UK household’s annual gas demand.

Separately, Centrica and QP’s international arm, Qatar Petroleum International, signed a memorandum of understanding to partner on future energy-related investments at the 20th World Petroleum Congress held in Qatar last year.

Sam Laidlaw, Centrica chief executive says: “I am delighted to have welcomed Qatari graduates to Centrica and to the UK. We believe the shared experience of this cultural exchange programme has created a very positive learning experience for our Qatari guests but also for the Centrica employees who have worked alongside them.

“Programmes such as this help to build greater knowledge of each other’s businesses and cultures and deepens the relationship we have with Qatar. I would like to thank Qatar Petroleum for making this possible and we look forward to welcoming further graduates in the future.”

Yousef M Y Murad Al Jaber, who was part of the first batch of three Qataris working at Centrica from October 2010 to May 2011 recalled his eight months in the UK as “extremely rewarding” as the time in Windsor allowed him to acquire an entirely new set of skills.

“Although Qatar is a major oil and gas player, we still need to import some of the best practices. And what is better than working at Centrica, absorbing their work ethics and bringing them back home,” says Al Jaber, who most recently served as the Deputy Head of Social Responsibility for 20th World Petroleum Congress on behalf of QP.

“It was also a very powerful experience to be able to apply the knowledge from our culture to theirs, since we have our own strengths,” added Al Jaber, a product of Qatar’s long-term diversification plans after having graduated from Texas A&M as part of the pioneering graduation class of May 2007 in chemical engineering. Fellow countryman Abdulaziz Abdulla, a senior process engineer working in QP’s Technical Services – Engineering Onshore, echoes similar sentiments.

“Being able to see how Centrica approaches its business and learning from collaborating and exchanging expertise is the main idea,” says Abdulla.