Why did Archer bring a race car to ONS?

Those attending the ONS conference in Stavanger this week will have seen plenty of eye-catching exhibitions but Archer’s race car may take the cake.

The oilfield services firm has a ‘Formula Student’ car on its stand. University of Stavanger student Sander Hovet told Energy Voice why the machine was on the conference floor and what its connection to Archer was.

“Archer is our main sponsor this year,” Hovet explained.

“They mainly helped us with marketing and helped us to be a ‘real organisation’ and then there was economic support as well.”

© Ryan Duff/DCT Media

The team behind the car is a student organisation at the University of Stavanger.

The car at this year’s energy conference is the team’s 11th car and “every component” was designed by the students, Hovet said.

To bring the project to fruition students from engineering, administration, economics and marketing courses come together. The car ended up placing 20th out of 120 student organisations.

© Ryan Duff/DCT Media

“Each year we design and produce one electric race car and then compete at the biggest engineering competition for students, which is called Formula Student (FS).

“We travelled to FS UK which is in England, and the famous F1 track Silverstone and there we competed against other universities from the whole world.”

Hovet is a Formula 1 fan, however, he missed Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix as he was travelling to the conference.

Archer work experience following the race

In addition to economic and marketing support, the Norwegian firm also offered work experience for members of the University of Stavanger team.

Hovet, alongside two other students, worked as interns with Archer over the summer.

The University of Stavanger student added: “I got it through the sponsorship. They really wanted students who will soon be ready to start working and for us, the students, we are looking to get into the industry.

“It was a great opportunity.”