Pupils from Dyce Academy have been crowned winners of ICoTA (Intervention and Coil Tubing Association) and SPE Europe’s Energy Apprentice competition.
The inaugural award, presented at the 18th SPE ICoTA European Well Intervention Conference, saw four schools create a smart and sustainable idea for the oil and gas sector and pitch it to a panel of industry experts.
The winning idea, described as the Catalyst in Well Regeneration project, could in theory allow oil companies to extract significantly more oil from existing wells and was praised by the judges for its originality and potential practicality.
After demonstrating the concept with a video of their lab experiment and results, the team – made up of fourth and sixth year Dyce pupils, Andrew MacLeod, Dhruv Makwana, Aakash Gupta and Liam Shield – claimed that between 75 – 95% of reserves could be extracted.
Dyce beat three other Aberdeen and Shire schools – Cults, Kemnay and Westhill Academies – to the award.
Kemnay Academy was Highly Commended by the judging panel for their downhole ROV idea that proposes to improve access to oil in reservoirs.
ICoTA chairman Callum Munro said: “These kinds of awards really rely on those taking part to make it a success and the pupils from all the schools involved have really pushed themselves to make it just that.”
“What we hoped and what I believe we have achieved with The Energy Apprentice is to highlight the opportunities within the energy sector to young people.
“We are in the midst of a big skills shortage in the industry so if we can get young people interested and engaged now it will ensure that the future is secure.”