Schlumberber And Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Announce Launch Of Schlumberger Middle East And Asia Learning Center

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Schlumberger, the leading oilfield services company, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the world’s leading companies with major oil reserves, today officially launched their joint initiative, the Schlumberger Middle East and Asia Learning Center, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

H.E Youssef Omair bin Youssef, Secretary General of the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) and Chief Executive Officer, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Andrew Gould, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Schlumberger, officiated at the inauguration ceremony in front of over 100 VIP guests, Schlumberger and ADNOC staff.

The center has been built to provide essential advanced training for the oil and energy industry and is complete with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment including a custom-built training rig. The land on which the center was built was donated by ADNOC.

H.E Yousef Omair Bin Yousef, Secretary General of the Supreme Petroleum Council and Chief Executive Officer, ADNOC said, “The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) also takes great pride in having this facility in Abu Dhabi where our engineers and technical staff can have access to acquaint themselves with latest technology solutions. The Center also reflects the cooperation between ADNOC and Schlumberger.”

“The establishment of the Middle East Learning Center here in Abu Dhabi would not have been possible without the help of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company who have provided the land on which the center has been built. ADNOC’s continuous support has allowed us to finish construction of these world-class facilities within the record time of less than a year,” commented Andrew Gould, Chairman and CEO, Schlumberger.

The new state-of-the-art facility embraces numerous classrooms, workshops, fully equipped laboratories and field technical equipment to provide Schlumberger geoscientists, field engineers, field technicians and maintenance engineers from all over the world and ADNOC professionals and students of the Petroleum Institute with basic and advanced development of skills techniques related to the oilfield upstream sectors such as data service, software, seismic, reservoir evaluation, cementing, stimulation, directional drilling, measurements while drilling and artificial lift.

The Schlumberger Middle East and Asia Learning Center in Abu Dhabi is the newest and largest world-class oilfield services training center in the world joining three other global Schlumberger learning centers in the USA, UK and France.

“One key Schlumberger value is people. Their motivation and dedication to customers are our greatest strength. Every year, we hire many newly-qualified engineers and technicians who have yet to acquire industry experience. Our challenge is to train and develop these new employees as efficiently as possible in one of the Schlumberger service disciplines using the latest training techniques. And our goal is to ensure that our new employees have access to the same training and development opportunities regardless of where they come from and where they are going to be assigned,” added Gould.

The center’s construction started in November 2005. Phase 1 was completed with an investment of US$40 million, which will reach US$60 million upon the accomplishment of phase 2 towards mid-2007. Phase 3 will include accommodation for the trainees, and the whole project will represent a total investment of US$100 million.

About Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)
ADNOC is one of the world’s leading oil companies with substantial business interests in upstream and downstream activities including transportation, shipping, marketing and distribution. It was established in 1971 to operate in all areas of the oil and gas industry. Since then ADNOC has steadily broadened its activities, establishing companies and subsidiaries and creating an integrated oil and gas industry in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The company manages and oversees oil production of more than 2.7 million barrels a day which ranks it among the top ten oil and gas companies in the world. ADNOC has 14 subsidiary companies working in the various fields of the oil, gas and petrochemical industry as well as crude oil and gas transport and services. They include ADCO, ADMA-OPCO, GASCO, ADGAS, ZADCO, TAKREER, NDC, ESNAAD, IRSHAD, FERTIL, BOROUGE, ADNATCO, NGSCO, and ADNOC-Distribution. For more information, visit www.ADNOC.com.

About Schlumberger
Schlumberger is the world’s leading oilfield services company supplying technology, project management and information solutions that optimize performance for customers working in the oil and gas industry. The company employs more than 70,000 people of over 140 nationalities working in approximately 80 countries. Schlumberger supplies a wide range of products and services from seismic acquisition and formation evaluation through directional drilling, well cementing and stimulation, well completions and productivity to consulting, software, information management, and IT infrastructure services that support core industry operational processes. In 2006, Schlumberger operating revenue was $19.23 billion. For more information, visit www.SLB.com.

About Schlumberger Middle East and Asia Learning Center (MLC)
The Schlumberger Middle East and Asia Learning Center is the newest and largest multi-disciplinary oilfield services training center in the world. It is the fourth of its type and joins existing centers in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The new Center features state-of-the-art classrooms, workshops, laboratories and field technical equipment to provide new field engineers, field technicians and maintenance engineers from all over the world basic and advanced training in data services and software, seismic, well logging, cementing, stimulation, directional drilling, measurements-while-drilling and artificial lift technologies.


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