To boost efforts to encourage students to pursue education and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc. provided future geoscientists with the exclusive opportunity to learn and exchange knowledge on the oil and gas industry during the Student Programme organised in conjunction with the Asia Petroleum Geoscience Conference & Exhibition
(APGCE) 2017 held from November 21-22, 2017 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
ExxonMobil’s senior geoscientist Diana Abdul Rahman and senior geophysicist Fayaz Onn shared their personal career stories and spoke about the nature of their work, explaining the key roles of geological sciences in the exploration, development and production of the upstream business, as well as the outlook and prospects for the future of the industry.
Diana highlighted the opportunities provided by ExxonMobil, and how it has helped her develop both personally and professionally.
“ExxonMobil has provided me with the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills and expertise throughout my career here. Geoscientists will develop a broad skillset along the way which are necessary to manage, quality check and integrate various geoscience datasets and resources to support the exploration and production process.
ExxonMobil provides both formal and on-the-job training in data management, subsurface interpretation and mapping techniques, data integration and analysis in various geoscience applications and geospatial tools which has been very beneficial to my growth as an employee and as an individual,” Diana shared.
Fayaz encouraged students to continuously pursue new knowledge to keep up with the constantly evolving nature of energy consumption trends, and develop soft skills as a significant asset when working in teams.
“Although it is a challenging industry, it can also be very rewarding. As an undergraduate, it is important to learn as much as you can, both in and outside the classroom. Read industry publications and also have discussions with your peers to exchange knowledge and share your views as this will help you develop your interpersonal skills which are very central to the nature of the work that we do with different departments and specialists in other areas,” advised Fayaz.
As a science and technology company that places an emphasis on ensuring today’s students are prepared for the jobs of the 21st century, ExxonMobil is a primary platinum sponsor of this initiative, which drew the participation of 67 students from 11 universities across Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The two-day programme enabled students to further understand the oil and gas sector as a workplace, as well as allowing them to apply their STEM knowledge to solve problems through the APGCE student challenge quiz and the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE) geo-quiz. Both challenges were conducted by industry specialists to test students’ STEM skills and knowledge.
Each university was represented by a team of two students for a warm up session to test their understanding on the petroleum system and its elements through the application of sequence stratigraphy approach. Each team was given a seismic section to identify sequence boundaries and petroleum system elements present in the seismic section. Based on the given seismic section, the teams were required to answer questions to earn points that would give them an edge in the EAGE Geo-Quiz at the final stage.
The highlight of the APGCE Student Programme was the highly-anticipated EAGE Geo-Quiz, where 70 questions were presented in a rapid-fire quiz format to students, with a time limit of 20 seconds each to be answered. Students were expected to identify and understand basic knowledge in topics such as petroleum geoscience, geophysics and geochemistry.
At the closing and award ceremony, the Student Excellence Award was given out to participants who showcased outstanding academic performance, leadership and extracurricular activities throughout the Student Programme.
The successful participants received certificates and a token. Coming out on top for winning the EAGE Geo-Quiz was Chawanwit Lee-Arporn and Natchaphol Charnsiri from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand who received sponsored flight tickets to attend the EAGE Annual Conference 2018 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
