ExxonMobil Qatar welcomes students to internship programme

This month, ExxonMobil Qatar welcomed interns to its summer internship programme that has been running since 2006, it was announced Monday. 

The programme provides students from local universities, such as Qatar University and Texas A&M University at Qatar, with insight into Qatar’s energy industry, and highlight how the company is supporting the Qatar National Vision 2030 through its national strategy. More than 170 local students have interned at ExxonMobil Qatar to date under the programme, shadowing the company’s professionals and experts as they go about their day to day work responsibilities. Expanding opportunities for young people to learn is a strategic priority for ExxonMobil Qatar. The company places a lot of emphasis on education, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Abdulla al-Sulaiti spent a few weeks working with ExxonMobil’s Upstream Oil and Gas team. “Interning at ExxonMobil Qatar was an insightful and constructive experience. I hope to retain the skills I obtained from working as an intern and use them in other aspects of my academic life,” he commented.One intern was based at ExxonMobil Research Qatar (EMRQ), where the center’s team helps train and prepare students and up-and-coming scientists to become future leaders in multiple applied research projects. In addition, three high school students from Al-Maha Academy, English Modern School, and Qatar Academy also took part in a job shadowing program at EMRQ this summer. Khalid al-Naimi is one of these high school students. He has been working closely with researcher, Sabrina Sketa in EMRQ’s labs, where he is discovering the basics of carbonate geology - a field highly relevant to Qatar. He has handled rock samples in various forms, from thin sections to hand samples, and is learning to differentiate between basic minerals, such as dolomite, gypsum and an assortment of clays.“EMRQ’s summer internship programme has given me the chance to do interesting work and meet accomplished scientists and researchers. I’m appreciative of all the support they gave me and the time they spent making sure I was learning,” explains al-Naimi.In addition to working closely with expert scientists and researchers, students are familiarised with how the center conducts research in areas of common interest to Qatar and ExxonMobil, including environmental management, water reuse, LNG Process Safety and modern geology.“Our internship programme has always been very special to us. We have welcomed interns each summer for almost a decade and we’re excited to have our 2019 interns work closely with us this month,” said Dr Mohamed al-Sulaiti, research director for EMRQ.