Abeer Hassan Abuhelaiqa, corporate petroleum reserves and resources co-ordinator for Qatar Petroleum, has been named the fifth Alumnus of the Year by Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq), a Qatar Foundation partner university.
The award recognises Tamuq graduates with outstanding achievements, engagement with the branch campus, service to Qatar and contributions to its development, as well as the demonstration of the Texas A&M core values of respect, excellence, leadership, loyalty, integrity and selfless service, according to a press statement.
Abuhelaiqa, a Class of 2011 petroleum engineering graduate, was recognised during a private ceremony during which the partner university unveiled a display honouring its outstanding alumni, which include Mariam al-Meer (’12); Dr Nayef Alyafei (’09); Yousef al-Jaber (’07) and Muna al-Mohannadi (’10).
“I am extremely honoured to be selected as the alumnus of this year and to join the past outstanding recipients of this award,” Abuhelaiqa said. “Indeed, recognising our hard work and organising this gathering with high precautions for the pandemic shows how always Tamuq supports their Aggies and celebrates their success.”
She added, “I want to thank the committee for selecting me from other nominees whom I believe are all excellent, if not better than me. I want to dedicate this award to my husband and my parents who always supported me to be who I am today; to all the great Tamuq ambassadors who keep the bar high; and to Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser who had the vision to bring one of the best engineering schools to Qatar.”
After graduating from Texas A&M at Qatar, Abuhelaiqa began her career with Qatar Petroleum as a petroleum engineer in Onshore Field Development where she was responsible for designing well details for any workovers as well as drilling new wells. She was then sent to the field for six months to work with drillers and to support rig and rigless operations. She then moved to the Surveillance section as a reservoir engineer, where she monitored reservoirs and ensured stability to meet the country’s targets, and where she was responsible to the main strategic reservoir supplier use for electrical generation. In 2019, she was appointed the corporate petroleum reserves and resources co-ordinator in a new department in QP, the first-of-its-kind in Qatar in a national oil and gas company. In this role, Abuhelaiqa is responsible for guiding and ensuring all reservoirs and hydrocarbon assets owned or shared by QP in Qatar and internationally are compliant with international systems.
Throughout her career, Abuhelaiqa has sought volunteer opportunities, which she said she sees as her responsibility to give back to Qatar and other institutions what has been given to her. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Abuhelaiqa volunteered with Qatar Red Crescent Society and the Ministry of Public Health to support her country in its fight against the virus.
She has also represented the oil and gas industry in various community events and has spoken to school girls in Qatar about being a female engineer in the oil and gas industry. In 2019, she organised a leadership workshop, Women in Energy, for women who work in oil and gas to promote their leadership skills.
She is also active in the Qatar chapter of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and has volunteered for many of the society’s community events related to health, education and environment.She has also stayed connected with her alma mater, serving as a judge in the Petroleum Engineering Programme’s annual student paper contest and as a mentor on several senior capstone design projects. She has worked with university students on topics such as time management, project management and how to be prepared to work in any industry in Qatar. Texas A&M at Qatar dean Dr Cesar Octavio Malave congratulated Abuhelaiqa on being a shining example of the engineering leaders in Qatar that the university produces.
“Abeer is an outstanding example of what Aggie engineers can do and they impact they can have,” Dr Malave said.
“In everything she does, Abeer embodies the Aggie core values. Aggie engineers are uniquely positioned to help Qatar achieve the goals set out in the Qatar National Vision 2030 and we are proud of what our graduates are achieving. We celebrate Abeer and her accomplishments, just as we celebrate the accomplishments of all of our former students, and we look forward to celebrating many more successes as our Aggie engineers work to make a difference here in Qatar and around the world.”
Abeer Hassan Abuhelaiqa with Dr Cesar Octavio Malave.
