US oil giant Chevron, leading Thai oil explorer PTT Exploration and Production and Chulalongkorn University have joined forces to launch the first master's degree programme in petroleum geoscience in Thailand. It opened its first semester a week ago.
Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production's president Tara Tiradnakorn, PTTEP's president Maroot Mrigadat, PTTEP's vice president Somkiat Chanmaha, Chulalongkorn's president Pirom Kamolratanakul and the associated dean of Chulalongkorn's Science Faculty Vudhichai Parasuk, outline their ambitious goal of making the programme an internationally-recognised centre of excellence in geoscience research in Southeast Asia. The Nation's Pichaya Changsorn reports.
Is this programme the first such cooperation between the petroleum industry and a university in Thailand?
Tara: It is the first cooperation between a university and [petroleum] industry in terms of opening of a new master's degree course. It is also an international programme. Thailand has produced oil for 30 years and we thought there should have a master's degree course supporting personnel to gear up directly for oil and gas production.
In the past, we normally sent out our staff to study abroad. However, a similar programme in Brunei was discontinued three or four years ago and we saw the opportunity [to introduce the course in Thailand] because there is still a lot of demand [for petroleum geoscientists] in the region. This programme will aim for students coming from the entire region.
There is a shortage of human resources in this field in the region, and over the past 25 years many foreign experts have been required to come into the region. Oil and gas demand has also increased rapidly in the region.
Maroot: Frankly, it must be accepted that we still might not get top high-school students to enrol in the Science Faculty and the Geoscience programme [at the bachelor's degree level], despite the fact that we need top-grade students. PTTEP - and Chevron as well - we have been conducting a campaign at secondary schools and more students are interested in geoscience. The image of this industry has been an image of a person with a hammer, roaming about the forest.
Salaries for a petroleum geoscientist or a petroleum engineer are currently not much different.
Tara: For this first year, Chevron sent seven people who received our scholarships to join in the course, out of a total of 19 students. Five other students receive scholarships from the programme with no obligation, two students won scholarships from PTTEP and the remaining five students are paying their own fees. The students come from six countries: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar [Burma] and the Philippines.
What is the demand/supply outlook for this profession?
Tara: We have to gradually take up [students from the new Chula programme]. Although there is a lot of demand, there are limitations in the organisation, so we have to blend [newly graduated staff] with existing employees. At the same time, we have to keep our alliance with the top-10 high schools to attract their best inputs.
Our industry has been developing for 25 to 30 years. We have developed engineers to succeed expatriates but for geoscientists, we can substitute only about half.
Maroot: We have produced natural gas for 30 years, but we're still half-way to full potential. There are a lot of demands in the country. Furthermore, we have begun to expand overseas.
Somkiat: The job market [for petroleum geoscientists] is wide. It's not limited to Thailand and not just oil companies, you can also work for service companies and can go worldwide.
[Our aim in this programme is that] if anyone is interested in geoscience in Southeast Asia, they must come here. It will become the centre of excellence for Southeast Asia [in petroleum geoscience].
How much research is jointly conducted by the petroleum industry and the universities?
Maroot: Still not much. We would like it to increase. This year we have granted Bt4 million to Chula for researching the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman sea, and another Bt6 million to support geological research at Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai universities.
Tara: This master's degree programme is part of our University Partnership Programme (UPP), in which Chevron has worked with 18 universities in 10 countries, including Stanford, Texas A&M, MIT, Imperial College, the India Institute of Technologies and Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia. Under this partnership, Chevron supports our personnel from overseas to help teaching.
It also supports research, provides scholarships, and helps to link and share resources between the universities, such as exchanges of visiting professors. Furthermore, students are able to pursue their studies with real and various geological databases, enabling them to perform practical work once they graduate.
How do you ensure a quality output from this course?
Vudhichai: Our personnel. Dr Jo [Joseph Lambiase, the programme's director] is recognised internationally. We trust him. He had a successful experience in setting up a similar course [Lambiase was formerly Brunei Shell Professor of Petroleum Geoscience and Head of the Petroleum Geoscience Department at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam]. We have had to fight and compete against the private sector in search of faculty personnel.
Tara: We plan to develop Thai instructors. Chevron and PTTEP have committed US$10 million [Bt340.74 million]to support this programme over the next five years.
Pirom: The university has a determination to forge partnerships with the private sector. In the past we weren't able to produce students who were readying to immediately go to work. [Their employers] had to spare a lot of time for training [newly graduated staff]. This is a dream cooperation for which we have yearned for a long time. I'm very glad.
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