MUSCAT -- PDO-SQU Technology Souq, the annual poster presentation and discussion session, organised by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and the Deanship of Research at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), explored the possibilities of more consultative research projects between the two organisations in fields related to oil and gas exploration and recovery. The event was held yesterday at SQU under the patronage of Dr Hilal al Hinai, Secretary General of the Research Council (TRC). The engineers and experts from PDO explained certain technical challenges through a number of posters, which enabled SQU researchers to understand the latest challenges in oil industry and the latest technologies adopted by PDO.
The posters shed light on the whole range of research and development activities in petroleum fields such as material selection, corrosion, drilling, expandable tubes, etc. The poster session was followed by two presentation sessions delivered and attended by experts from SQU and PDO. The presentations focused on two broad themes namely corrosion and materials, and water management. Hussain al Salmi and Shabhd Qayum from PDO discussed about materials corrosion and integrity, and PDO water management challenges respectively. Prof. Tasneem Parvez from SQU spoke about opportunities and challenges in materials research and applications. This was followed by a talk on materials testing at SQU, delivered by Dr. Ashraf Al Hinai from the College of Science. Prof Joydeep Dutta gave a brief overview of water research at SQU.
The research partnership between PDO and SQU started way back in 1995. PDO commits a significant portion of its research budget to projects spearheaded by SQU, almost all of these projects are focused on practical oilfield solutions which can be used by PDO to boost production, at the same time establishing SQU as the regional centre of excellence for research into them. Until 2013, SQU has taken up 183 consultative reach projects for PDO worth RO 10473180. In the year 2013 alone, SQU got five projects from PDO worth RO 544707. Currently most of the consultative projects for PDO comes under energy and non-renewable energy sources, and materials research. SQU seeks to widen this to other areas including humanities and social sciences, information and communication technologies, and life and health sciences.
© Oman Daily Observer 2014
