Masters of Oil and Gas

  - Dmitry Gurievich, does oil and gas production, a rich industry, need innovations at  all?

-  Innovation business is based on introduction of the latest scientific achievements and advanced technologies into the process of production. This approach is actual for all the branches of economy and, first of all, for oil and gas industry. The situation in the industry in the resent years has become paradoxical: on the one hand, favorable price situation at the world market resulted in intensification of oil production, appearance of new major state and private companies which are developing rapidly. On the other hand, analyzing the prospects of the industry arouses concern, for recoverable resources increment achieved due to exploration works is considerably lower than recovery. According to the prognosis of the Ministry of Nature of the RF economic reserves of oil will have been depleted by 2015 and the total oil reserves – by 2025. We fall substantially behind the developed countries in such important matters as the oil recovery factor and of oil upgrading index. According to the data of MNR oil recovery factor at the Russian plants has fallen in the latest decades from 51% to 29% approximately, while in the USA it has risen from 28% to 41%. In the USA and Western Europe oil upgrading index is about 90%. In Russia this gauge is about 70%. With that more than 70% of the recovered associated gas is never processed and about 30% is just being born in flares. It results not only in losses amounting to about $13 billion per annum, but in environmental damage. One may add to the list of problems the problem of exporting crude oil and not the downstream products. At present this problem is a concern not only at the governmental level. Many private companies who work with the consideration of future prospects, having raised  enough finance start to invest into advanced technologies  and, most important, in training the new generation of qualified specialists. For example, a year ago the rector of Moscow State University and the president of OAO NK “RussNeft” signed an agreement on setting up Higher School of Innovation Business, which, in spite being a corporate university, is open for all comers.

- What is the principal purpose of setting up the department?

-    We are going to prepare a new generation of qualified specialists for oil and gas complex.
 Higher Schhol of Innovation Business is set up on the basis of the idea of consolidating the efforts of several departments, first of all, geological, chemical and state management departments.  The programs were worked out by professors of the Moscow State University and  representatives of “RussNeft” with consideration of the tasks facing oil corporations nowadays.

- What courses to the future masters undertake?

- There are three master’s programs:  “Natural resources management”, course “Management”, “Geological and Geophysical exploration of Oil and Gas Fields”, course “Geology” and “Chemical Processing of Hydrocarbon Stock”, course “Chemistry”. The program “Natural Resources Management” is, in many aspects, unique for Russian higher education. Together with managerial and economic disciplines Higher School of Innovation Business gives the basic knowledge of resource base, its dynamics, model building and on the basis of these models creation of region development  and resource management scenarios, including high-urbanized regions and natural resources of cities.   The candidates for master’s degree learn to resolve these tasks by methods of individual and group imitative games, which permit first to get the idea and later the skills of managing complicated systems. Distinctive features of specialization are system modeling, integration of natural and social processes, decision-making practice in the groups, regarding of management as a scenario of region development on a long-term strategic perspective.

The main objective of the master program “Geological and Geophysical Exploration of Oil and Gas Fields” is to train specialists in the field of the latest technologies of geological study, modeling and development of the fields, advanced scientific methods of seismic works, geophysical and hydrodynamic exploration of wells, building up oil recoverability etc.

The master program “Chemical processing of Hydrocarbon Stock” stems from the fact that raw stock orientation can’t be changed without introducing innovations in the refining industry. The program includes, together with special disciplines. courses of management, marketing, intellectual property defense,  environmental problems etc. Such an approach permits to prepare the specialists who, on the one side, a are acquainted with scientific and technical aspects of the problem, and, on the other side, have sufficient managerial skills to act as managers able to bring a scientific project to the stage of industrial production.

During the process of training all the candidates become acquainted with the software which permits to interpret geological and geophysical data, to build oil and gas fields’ models, to calculate technological processes of oil refining, to assess the prospects of the region development. Special attention is paid to the English language because the candidates regularly listen to the lectures of the leading specialists of Western companies.

- Don’t you think you try to combine too different disciplines in a single program? management, geology, refining – these are different branches of economy, aren’t they?

- Major oil companies are in fact vertically integrated holdings and their spheres of interest encompass the whole chain, starting from exploration and recovery of mineral resources through to processing and sale of finished product. Within the framework of the Higher School there exists  a cross0disciplinary  approach thanks to which the candidates of each course may receive basic knowledge on each of the offered programs. We want the graduates of the department not only to be experts in their “narrow” field, but to be widely aware of the problems facing their company and the industry as a whole.

- One of the main criteria of choosing an educational institution is qualification of the teachers. Who teaches at  the Higher School?

- At present the major part of the lectures is delivered by the professors and assistant professors from the departments of geology, chemistry, law and state management. A number of courses is delivered by employees of “RussNeft” – from the vice-president to the chiefs of departments and chief specialists of the scientific and technological center. Master-classes are given by chief specialists of Russian oil and service companies, consultants and lecturers of the European Association of Geologists and Engineers (EAGE) as well as qualified specialists from the leading home and foreign institutions and universities.

- Are the students of the Higher School supposed to take part in scientific researches, practical work?

- At the end of the course the candidates defend Master’s Thesis which is impossible to prepare without scientific researches. Practical, scientific  and research work is carried on at the base plants and at scientific and technological centers of “RussNeft”, at the leading institutes of the Academy pf Sciences. Scientific and research work is carried on within the frames of real industrial projects and this fact gives the candidates the possibility not only  to get acquainted with the level of today’s employers’ requirements, but sometimes get remuneration. For example, close relations with the small-scale innovation enterprise of Moscow State University “Deco-Physics”, which is situated in the Scientific Park, enables our students to take part in processing and interpretation of seismic data, building geological models of real oilfields from almost every region of the Russian Federation. 

- People in their minds often associate natural resources utilization with pollution of the environment. Will your program pay attention to ecological problems?

- Of course, this matter permeates all our programs. For example, a special block of disciplines is devoted to environmental control and ecological security both at oil production and oil refining stages. These problems are taken into account while building imitation models, working out the scenarios of  inter-branch management in a region. Besides, we advise on using geoinformational systems- this is one of the most advanced methods of natural resources management and environmental control in a region.

- What future do you foresee for your graduates?

- A part of our candidates are employees of “RussNeft” and, quite naturally, they are going to return to the company. We hope that they will return to higher positions. The other students after graduation will be interviewed at the company and according to the result of the interview they may be offered some vacancies. Besides, our graduates can find jobs in other Russian and foreign oil companies, in federal and regional administration bodies. An important result of our course of studies is upgrading of general and special qualification of our graduates, expansion of their range of vision not only in their special field of knowledge, but also in adjoining spheres, wider acquaintance with innovation technologies. We hope that high qualification of the candidates for a master’s degree of the Higher School will be used for creation of conceptually new, flexible and efficient processes of hydrocarbon stock production and processing, choice of the most prospective trends of business development, well-timed managerial decisions.

Information for applicants:

The plan of admittance to the magistracy for the year 2007 is 25 people. Admittance only for the people with bachelor’s, specialist’s or master’s degree who have successfully passed the entrance examinations. Apply from June 20 through to June 30. Acceptance tests (interviewing on the subject of the chosen course):  July 1 -  July 7.
Period of study – 2 years.  Full-time course. Pay education. The educational charge for 2007 is 173000 rubles. Hostel for non-residents. Hostel charges are not included in the cost of education (extra payment for the hostel).
Tel.:   939-2029   939-08-83   939-11-50
Fax:    939-08-83
www.hsib.msu.ru
E-mail: infp@hsib.msu.ru
Dean’s office, admission office:  MSU, Lenin Hills1, laboratory building «Б», 2nd floor, room 201.