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January 2012
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Accreditation means that the UWI Masters degree in Petroleum Engineering fully meets the requirements for further learning for Chartered Engineer (C.Eng.) status – the highest level of practitioner engineer certification required for international practice of the discipline. The practice of Petroleum Engineering is at the intersection of four critical forces. The first is the growing world demand for petroleum, which is fuelled by increases in population, and expectations of the high quality of life made possible by the use of petroleum by growing masses of people. This demand is expected to continue to grow for at least the next 20 years, but the demand will continue to exist for at least another 50. The second major force is that the easy petroleum has been found and exploited. Further discoveries will be found in more hostile environments and in deeper waters offshore, and the necessary wells and facilities will have to be deeper and more complex to find and exploit more hydrocarbons. The third major force is the increasing worldwide sensitivity to the need for environmental protection and preservation, and increasing concerns for health and safety in the workplace. This places additional demands on operators of the extractive industries to implement more complex technologies in their operations to ensure all requirements are honoured at levels that meet both national and international standards The fourth major force is what is termed “the great crew change.” A 2011 study predicts that the international oil and gas industry will lose 5000 experienced geoscientists and engineers – petrotechnical professionals (PTPs) – over the next three years, into 2014, due to natural attrition. The older, more experienced people have reached retirement age and are leaving. This MSc programme ensures that UWI can deal with the two challenges that arise out of this situation. Firstly, UWI is producing a cadre of highly educated PEs through proven and accepted curricula and processes, and secondly, through accreditation, UWI is ensuring that these graduates can progress quickly through further learning to qualify for the C.Eng. status. |
The Master of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering of The UWI was recently re- accredited by the UK-based Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) for a five-year period: 2010-2014. The programme had also earned accreditation from the UK-based Energy Institute for the period 2009-2013. This makes the UWI MSc in Petroleum Engineering (PE) the only accredited PE programme, but even more distinctively, the only dually accredited programme in Petroleum Engineering in the West Indies.