A networking website, designed by Heriot-Watt Petroleum Learning Centre at Tomsk Polytechnical University graduates to make personal connections, has developing into a popular forum for Oil & Gas Industry professionals.

The idea of website to save links between Heriot-Watt Centre graduates in Russia originally was implemented guestbook by Gennadiy Fedorchenko (PE 2004). Anton Baluev (PE 2004) who became main website administrator together with Almaz Mullagaliev (PE 2003) and Roman Dzema (PE 2004) had developed guestbook into forum - with sections created according subjects and number of questions at forum. Further, as number of registered users was increased Vladimir Volkov (PE 2004) was started to serve as main moderator. Gradually, personal communications between gradutes has developed into discussions about professional subjects which attracted employees of different petroleum companies.

For example, career-related discussions had led to the development of a section at forum about career development in the oil and gas industry. Also, Petroleum companies readily started to post new job openings in "Oil and Gas Vacansies" section, where professionals publish their CV's for review and job search. Technical support for Schlumberger and Roxar software users is also provided through created for that purposes section. A special section was also designed for graduates applying to study at Heriot-Watt's Approved Learning Partner in Tomsk which also delivers Petroleum Engineering and Reservoir Evaluation & Management MSc courses, together with an increasing number of Petroleum Industry short courses.

http://heriot-watt.ru is one of the most popular and well-known forums in the Oil and Gas Industry in Russia, according to forum statistics data. Over 5,000 users are registered currently including about 1,000 users who visit the website each working day. There are now more than 2,000 visitors per day. Alexei Vashkevich, Deputy General Director of Samara-Nafta (Hess Corporation), first year graduate of Heriot-Watt Centre in Tomsk (PE 2002) commented: "Heriot-Watt University and the Petroleum Learning Centre in Tomsk provide a unique chance for Russian technical graduates to get a leading western education, which allows students to get a modern and alternative view on field development, to learn western technologies and management standards and allows them to successfully implement these in Russian or foreign Oil & Gas companies. The growing popularity of Heriot-Watt in Russia is becoming apparent". "Heriot-Watt.ru has already become a popular network source among the broad circle of oil & gas specialists who can publish job vacancies, discuss a wide scope of problems and get answers on questions." The site administrators are considering developing the forum further for use in professional network development in Russia and all over the world. For more information about Tomsk HW Learning Centre visit: http://hw.tpu.ru and for more information about the forum for Oil and Gas Geologists and Engineers or to register, visit: http://heriot-watt.ru

Tomsk Learning Partner Continues to deliver Petroleum Courses
To sum up the results of Heriot-Watt's Approved Learning Centre in Tomsk in last three years; this unique and innovative institution which prepares petroleum engineers with internationally respected degrees is continuously delivering what oil and engineering companies require and even more.

The Heriot-Watt Centre was established in September 2001 by collaboration of Tomsk Polytechnic University, Heriot-Watt Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Tomskneft, Samaraneftegaz, Yuganzkneftegaz Oil Companies and Petroleum Project Institutions from Tomsk, Samara and Ufa. Admitted graduates from technical universities study for one year in Tomsk and are able to obtain Heriot-Watt Petroleum Engineering or Reservoir Evaluation and Management (Petroleum Geoengineering) MSc Degrees, together with TPU diploma of professional re-training. The first Heriot-Watt Tomsk graduates were exclusively attracted and selected by the companies – partners of both Universities. Since 2005, the admitted students have been also sponsored by petroleum companies including TNK-BP, Rosneft, Gazpromneft, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, TomskNIPIneft, and many others. The number of applicants for Master's courses has grown to 800 - 1000 per year with 55 PE and 22 REM MSc students for 2009-2010 year of study.

During the last three years the Centre increased the volumes of all its programmes. The number of field development projects, reservoir modeling and simulation projects which the Centre provides for the Petroleum Industry has greatly increased. For instance, in July 2009, specialists from the Centre; Tatyana Deyeva (Petroleum Engineering Course Director) and Tikhon Kuzmin (Deputy Director on Research and Development) successfully approved, through the Central Development Committee Rosnedra (Moscow), the Pilot Field Development Project of Vasilievskoye oil field for the Samara-Nafta oil company (a branch of Hess Corporation).

Andrey Dmitriev, PhD, Director of the Centre, says:

"High-quality levels of training require significant funds. Although we have not increased the training fees for the last four years or so, now during the financial crisis, certain financial issues are harder to solve. We discussed the situation with each of the sponsors, no one is going to back out, they are just asking to put it on hold for a while, until the situation becomes clearer. In the meantime, the Centre is funded in other ways. For example, we are designing field development projects for Vostokgazprom. Last year we started a new division dealing with well construction design, and TNK-BP/NovosibirskNeftegaz have put together four projects so far. Also, we deliver short courses to Petroleum Industry professionals, and this line of work is also expanding."

Further to this, an evaluation of personnel's technical competences by Petroleum Companies was introduced in 2005. The Centre is also planning to run a few new programmes; among them distance learning and personnel recruitment services.

Boris Fionov, Project Engineer in "Peregovorshik" and one of the first set of HW Tomsk REM Alumni (2004) says: "One more positive of studying at the Centre for students is the learning of new, modern technologies in nature and being responsible enough to apply these in practical work within Russian oilfields, after graduation. Studying at Heriot-Watt provided excellent practical skills and background for me, and was very helpful for applying new core studies standards and procedures for the gas-condensate Kovyktinskoye Field, which is one of the biggest reserves worldwide (OJSC RUSIA Petroleum, TNK-BP is majority shareholder). For example, the programme to reduce uncertainty in petrophysical information was executed and realised. Furthermore, the Centre itself stabilised the core in rezin from one of the exploration wells, which is a novel project for Russian Industry".

"The leading Russian Universities (like Novosibirsk State, Tomsk Polytechnic, Tomsk State, Bashkirsky State, Samarsky State Technical Universities, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas and a few others), give fundamental technical education, which enhanced with a practical MSc from the internationally respected Heriot-Watt provides alumni a chance to build an excellent career in the Petroleum Industry. Even those alumni who changed their area of work from a technical to commercial role are known as good technical managers because of their acquired practical skills. The successful work of alumni is valuable promotion of the excellent reputation of either Alma Mater"

Pavel Im, Director in SIAM-Engineering (PE 2004) comments: "HW Petroleum Learning Centre in Tomsk provides an invaluable impact to attract, educate and develop high-quality geology and oil & gas field development professionals. Most alumni are well recommended and work successfully in major oil and service companies in Russia, with many of them holding leading positions. More than 20 Petroleum Engineering and Reservoir Evaluation and Management alumni are working in our company, which in conjunction with "old school" professionals is helping to achieve great success in the market. We wish that HW Centre will continue to develop in spite of the world crisis and will continue to attract and educate top quality professionals for the Petroleum Industry Worldwide."
Author: Alumni Administrator, Date Published: Oct 22, 2009
Find out more: http://hw.tpu.ru/en/center/

From: Alan Shaw
Sent: 22 October 2009 19:21
To: Morton, Rob L S
Subject: Congratulations on the recent issue of HWU magazine

Rob,

First let me say how interesting I found the HWU magazine just received. Its width of coverage is excellent. A small snippet caught my eye - the HWU Oil & Gas Centre in Tomsk. Is it an official representative of HWU in Russia or a contact office for Tomsk University?

Marjory and I made three fascinating visits to the Soviet Union in the 1970's (eight cities on the road to Samarkand, then to Tiblisi, Georgia and Yerevan, Armenia and then in 1975 by air to Khabarovsk in the Soviet Far East and back via the Trans -Siberian Railway to Irkutsk, Lake Baikal and Bratsk once the largest hydro power station in the world where the shift charge engineer we met was a woman (in the tradition of HWU Petroleum Institute!)

My engineering alma mater , Metropolitan -Vickers took the hint, regardless of British government views, when , In 1920, Lenin famously said, "Communism equals Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country." M-V received a setback when on the night of 21st March 1933 six Metro-Vickers engineers, along with eleven Russian colleagues, were arrested and charged with sabotaging the very power stations they were building. This became one of the first Stalin show trials.

About thirty years later I had the privilege of hosting to dinner , with his wife, at the RAC Club, Charles H. De Nordwall who had been the youngest of the six plucked out of snow bound Siberia and conveyed on the Trans- Siberian Railway to the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, HQ of the KGB! He told me a few snippets! By 1963 he had become Managing Director of M-V Export Company Ltd.

An interesting feature of the evidence (which was eventually passed to the UK Parliament) was the steadfast way in which Thornton the M-V leader (my father knew him ) made light of the treatment they had received - he was still maintaining the possibility of renewing trade with the Soviet Union and indeed M-V was back in the saddle not too long after. He stated that conditions in the Lubyanka were superior to those in British prisons - but how did he know?

When I returned to M-V from war service in 1946 we were producing designs for rail borne mobile power stations to rebuild the dreadful devastation all over the Soviet Union.

Perhaps our friends in Tomsk would like to hear this story.

Regards,
Alan