Kazan Federal University continues to implement additional professional education programs for the Cuban oil company CUPET (Cuba)

On October 3rd, representatives from the Cuban national oil and gas company CUPET, including the Director of Human Resources, Tania Perez, and the Head of Training and Development, Mario Miranda, visited the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies at Kazan Federal University.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss plans for expanding cooperation. It’s worth noting that collaboration with CUPET encompasses various areas. From 2018 to 2022, the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies at KFU graduated two groups of 25 students, each with a Master’s degree in “Petroleum Engineering”. During this time, 267 specialists and company executives were also trained through qualification enhancement courses.

A delegation from Cuba led by the Minister of Higher Education, Walter Baluha Garcia, visited IGPT in the summer of 2023, during which Ildus Chukmarov, the Deputy Director of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies for Marketing and Director of the Center for Advanced Training, Quality Management, and Marketing (CdoGEO), proposed several training formats for CUPET employees.

“As a follow-up to this meeting, representatives from CUPET visited us,” says Ildus Chukmarov. “During the conversation, we agreed to implement a qualification enhancement course titled ‘Non-Seismic Methods for Hydrocarbon Reservoir Exploration’ in Kazan and two professional retraining courses in Cuba with the support of Zarubezhneft: ‘Technologies for Oil Production from Reservoirs with Hard-to-Recover Reserves’ and ‘Modern Enterprise Management Technologies in the Oil and Gas Industry (Operational Management).'”

On the second day, the delegation met with Danis Nurgaliev, Vice-Rector for Petroleum Technologies, Environmental Management, and Earth Sciences, and Director of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies at Kazan Federal University.

“Cuba has significant oil reserves, and the national oil and gas company CUPET with the assistance of Zarubezhneft is involved in oil production, including at the Boca de Haruco field,” says Danis Nurgaliev. “We collaborate with these enterprises in technological and educational spheres. Since Cuba’s main reserves are highly viscous oil, KFU scientists have developed special catalysts that are currently being used successfully. Today, during our conversation, we discussed new forms of additional professional education that will help the company prepare highly skilled specialists. We also discussed the possibility of conducting joint projects with Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia.”

“We are pleased that our collaboration with Kazan Federal University continues to expand,” says Mario Miranda. “The meeting was productive, and we not only discussed current affairs but also toured the new laboratories at the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies – the Geological Center, where students learn to process and interpret seismic data. We also saw the lecture hall where a laboratory for Petrophysics and Oil Reservoir Physics of PJSC NK Rosneft will be located in the future. We see that the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies continues to develop and train competitive specialists.”