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OIL

‘We produce too many oil engineers’: Norwegian engineering student rep

A student leader at one of Norway’s top engineering schools says that too many engineering programmes in Norway are focused on oil.

'We produce too many oil engineers’: Norwegian engineering student rep
File photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen/NTB scanpix

The emphasis on oil engineering is bad for Norway’s future in green energy, according to Omar Samy Gamal of the Norwegian Society of Engineers and Technologists (Norges ingeniør og teknologorganisasjon, NITO).

“Several Norwegian engineering programmes are intoxicated on funds from the oil sector. Now it’s time for detoxification and innovation, and engineering and technology study programmes are not keeping up,” Gamal told broadcaster NRK.

The engineering student, who completed his bachelor’s degree in 2015, says he learned the same things as colleagues that graduated in 2005.

“The world is in the middle of a technological revolution, and the only concern here in Norway is how we can recruit more oil engineers,” he said.

According to a report by NRK, 36 percent of NITO’s students do not think their studies are equipping them for digitalisation and the increased use of robots.

Citing studies that predict fossil fuel energy will be completely phased out by 2050, Gamal told the broadcaster that more emphasis should be placed on renewable energy.

“Young people realise that the future is green and they want to work in a forward-looking field. That is to say, they want to have a job after 2050,” Gamal said.

READ ALSO: Norwegian government to spend millions removing litter from sea

Fewer students than ever are now applying for oil-related classes at other universities, including Stavanger, Molde and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, reports NRK.

Political advisor Elnar Remi Holmen at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (Olje- og energidepartementet) told the broadcaster that he was disappointed in the comments coming from NITO.

“This is poor form from the NITO students. We will need more oil engineers for decades to come,” Holmen said.

Holmen’s department maintains that oil and gas will be an important part of energy sources worldwide for a long time to come.

Neither was there much support for Gamal’s view at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, NTNU).

“The statements from NITO are very generalising and partly misleading. The future for the Norwegian oil industry is well described in for example the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (Oljedirektoratet) annual report,” Egil Tjåland, head of department at the Department of Geoscience and Petroleum, told NRK.

BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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