Aberdeen Drilling School to Open Four New Global Training Centers

A globally recognized advanced drilling, well engineering and well control training business is investing more than a million pounds to open four new training centers.

Aberdeen Drilling School (ADS), which is part of the RelyOn Nutec group, is set to develop the new facilities to deliver drilling excellence training in Houston, Bergen and Stavanger in Norway, and Cuidad del Carmen in Mexico.

The move has been driven by client demand for more training worldwide after a fifty percent increase in contract wins in the past six months. The training firm’s existing portfolio includes facilities in Aberdeen, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the Netherlands.

The four new training centres will be developed within existing RelyOn Nutec facilities but operated independently by the ADS team utilizing its state-of-art technology to deliver the most advanced simulator-based training currently available on the drilling market.

Expanding the services to four new locations will require ADS to increase its headcount to add five new bilingual instructors, whilst doubling the technical workforce in the coming six months with new instructors, simulator operators and software developers. The firm currently has a team of 20 based at its Aberdeen facility in Union Glen and 50 staff worldwide.

Managing director of Aberdeen Drilling School, Jason Grant, said: “This is really only the start for us. With access to the RelyOn Nutec network of over 30 training centers in 20 countries, we have a great platform for further expansion. Whilst this will continue to be driven by client demand, we have the opportunity and the capacity to look at opening up new facilities in multiple global locations simultaneously.

“A key region for us in the near future will be West Africa, where our clients need high quality and reliable training solutions. We are currently working with our partners and clients throughout West Africa to consider where the best and most accessible location would be. Our focus is both west and east, and our goal is to ensure clients have access to the same world-class training wherever their drilling operations are located.”

The announcement follows the firm’s recent acquisition of Norwegian simulation technology company, Oiltec Solutions, which has been integrated with ADS’s simulation technology and development team to create an inhouse platform being rolled out through its global training centres.

The expansion will see ADS offer its clients access to certification training, well engineering training and advanced drilling simulation training in ten locations across the world.

Work is already underway at the new centers in the US, Norway and Mexico which are set to be fully operational before the end of the year.