University Training in Oil and Gas in Tanzania

=Overview= Currently, petroleum-related university education is offered at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), the University of Dodoma (UDOM) and the Mineral Resource Institute (MRI).

Petroleum-related education in Tanzania receives considerable assistance such as laboratory equipment, guest lecturers and scholarships for students as well as co-operative programmes. Currently, four B.Sc. programmes, including a technical degree and a M.Sc., are being offered at various institutions of higher learning in the country.

=Existing Undergraduate Programmes= In October 2013, the UDSM started offering three petroleum-related undergraduate programmes. The College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CONAS) offers a B.Sc. in Petroleum Geology and the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET) offers a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering whose curriculum was co-developed with the Norwegian Technical University in Trondheim (NTNU). A B.Sc. in Petroleum Chemistry is offered in the Chemistry Department of the same UDSM.

The University of Dodoma (UDOM) started offering a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering in the College of Earth Sciences in the 2012/2013 academic year. The degree was benchmarked by similar overseas programmes offered in the United States, Norway, Saudi Arabia and India.[1] The Mineral Resource Institute (MRI) started offering an Ordinary Diploma in Petroleum Geo-science also in 2012/13.

=Existing Postgraduate Programmes= In collaboration with NTNU, the UDSM’s CoET offers a M.Sc. in Petroleum Geo-science and Engineering. The degree programme is part of the Norwegian ANTHEI (Angola Norway Tanzania Higher Education Initiative) programme for B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD. Since mid-2013, the programme has been financed by Statoil which allocated $2.3million to the project until 2017. The postgraduate degree is a two-year programme that allows a student to spend one year in Norway and the second year in Tanzania.

=Enrolment= By October 2013, 72 students were enrolled in petroleum-related degrees at the UDSM. Each year, 10 students are expected to take part in the ANTHEI Masters programme. At UDOM, 115 students are enrolled, and 110 students are enrolled at the MRI.

=Future Plans=

UDSM
The University of Dar es Salaam Business School (UDBS) with support from Statoil is developing a programme on Petroleum Finance and Economics; the ANTHEI programme is expected to be fully transferred to the UDSM; and the Department of Chemical and Mining Engineering plans to launch an M.Sc. in Oil and Gas.

Nelson Mandela and MRI
The Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology in Arusha (NM-AIST) engages BG Tanzania to offer students potential apprenticeships in the future. The Institute is also planning for a Petroleum-related post-graduate degree. The MRI intends to include programmes such as Oil and Gas Management and Petroleum Geology in its curriculum.

UDOM
The College of Earth Sciences plans to offer further degrees including a B.Sc. in Petroleum Geology, M.Sc. programmes in Petroleum Geology, Petroleum Reservoir Engineering and Petroleum Production Engineering.

=Training Challenges= The Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD)’s needs assessment established that university training in oil and gas in Tanzania is faced by the following challenges: concentration on upstream activities, excluding down- and mid-stream fields such as storage and transportation, lack of qualified teaching staff, lack of laboratories and equipment, and preponderance of theoretical orientation. =References=