At the end of his visit to the Tyumen Oil Research Centre, Vladimir Putin made a final conclusion: in order to make Russian business competitive in foreign markets, the country must have a base of highly skilled manpower – training scientists and technicians as well as young workers.
Last week, Prime Minister Putin made a working trip to Tyumen, the city set to become the centre of a new oil province. The Uvat cluster of oilfields being developed by TNK-BP may take the region to a new level of development.
The first well at Uvat was sunk 50 years ago, but because of its remoteness, rugged terrain, and complex structure, it could not be operated effectively until now. The new development of the Uvat field began with the advent of TNK-BP: two fields were put into operation and the long-distance pipeline was connected to the Transneft system in early 2009.
Much of the credit for the speedy development of the Uvat field goes to TNK-BP's Tyumen Oil Research Centre. Geological prospecting is one of the key areas of the Centre's research. The results make it possible to create conditions for drilling and putting oil wells into operation where previously it was unfeasible.
Upon Vladimir Putin's visit to the Tyumen Oil Research Centre, "the prime minister was shown some new technologies, as well as the training programmes for young specialists in drilling and geological research," said executive director of TNK-BP, German Khan, who accompanied Mr Putin on the tour. "We are constantly looking for new schemes of developing the fields, each of which is unique and calls for an innovative approach. The Institute does about 90% of the research the company needs," German Khan stressed.
In addition to geological prospecting, the Institute is in charge of training highly skilled personnel.
The company runs several programmes to upgrade the professional skills of university graduates. For example, Three Horizons is a programme for the development of young specialists in oil-well management, and since this year, the Young Technologists Programme will be available to workers in oil processing. About 200 million roubles are spent every year to implement such programmes.
The Prime Minister's visit to the Oil Research Institute, as well as the attention of the country's highest leadership, should provide an additional impetus to young Tyumen specialists as they improve their production and research skills. In the future, TNK-BP expects to create a basic centre for personnel training in Tyumen. Due to the growing global demand for energy resources, young oil specialists will need to acquire the skills necessary for coping with the complex and unique difficulties of extraction in the Russian fields.
Ivan Rogachev