Subsea Awareness Course Offer its Expertise to Mexico's Industry Professionals

 
Houston, TX - A group of 11 Mexican professionals from Rise Energy, Pemex, and ITPE attended the fall Subsea Awareness Course, marking the rising international interest in the course’s curriculum. An effort led by Dr. Zenon Medina-Cetina president and chair of SUT-US and supported by 22 volunteer speakers coordinated by the Subsea Operations and Engineering committee, chaired by Maria Ancheril and co-chaired by Steve Johnson (SUT-US-SEO).
 
The SUT-US’s Subsea Awareness course is offered four times a year for the oil and gas community. The four-day course offers industry professionals a broad introduction to subsea, covering the various sectors, operations, and emerging technologies. Course participants receive first-hand instruction from leading supply and service companies, such as Technip, Jukes Group, FMC, Oceaneering, and BP as well as tour the companies’ facilities and operations. This course offers foundational knowledge for individuals entering the industry or perhaps needing a refresher.

In addition to the group of Mexican professionals, various local Houstonian professionals from oil and gas companies attended the course. Additional course participants represented companies such as Shell, Halliburton, and SWE occupying positions such as subsea engineer, research scientist, sales manager and others. Many course participants sought to advance their professional training within the field.
 
The objective of Mexican group’s visit was to seek out ways of improving Mexico’s subsea operations within the Gulf. A production engineer of Pemex Osiris Bernal explained that Mexico is still young and developing its subsea operations within the Gulf of Mexico’s deep water oilfields; the course provided some valuable perspective in regards to Mexico’s operational standings within the field, seeing first-hand the various advancements and possibilities. Horlando Barrenechea, procurement and contract manager of Rise Energy, added that it was also useful to form contacts with well-seasoned experts and companies whom have pioneered in the field and handled numerous projects of varying scales.

In addition to the traditional four-day course offering, a special fifth day was organized for the group at Texas A&M University. The group was hosted by the Stochastic Geomechanics Laboratory (SGL). During the visit, they met with ocean engineering’s department head, civil engineering researchers, petroleum engineer faculty members; visited TAMU's Engineering Innovation Center and met with Engineering Global Programs director. The visit was an initiative for fostering future research and academic relations between Mexico’s subsea industry and neighboring U.S. academic institutions. Administration and Operations Director from ITPE, Dr. David Puga-Bolio was impressed by the opportunities awaiting engineering students at the university and remarked on the high value and quality the research experiences and labs provide.