DEG, the German Investment and Development Company, and the plant construction company Uhde GmbH of Dortmund have agreed to cooperate in the training of operating staff from Egyptian petroleum refineries within the context of a public-private partnership (PPP) project. The project will be cofinanced by DEG from PPP programme funds of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The project will include the realistic training of more than one hundred skilled operators from local refinery companies using state-of-the-art plant simulators. In addition, experienced operating personnel will also be trained as trainers. The PPP project will run for a total period of 21 months and is geared towards developing a generally recognised training standard for the Egyptian refinery
industry.

Uhde will contribute to this project its experience in training specialists to operate state-of-the-art plants. The company's scope of services will include the planning and implementation of all training courses as well as procurement of the required plant simulators. For Uhde the PPP project marks the successful continuation of a long partnership with the Egyptian industrial sector. In the past ten years alone the company has succeeded in winning plant contracts with a total value of over one billion euros in this growth market.

The project will enable DEG to fulfil one of its development aid policy objectives for long-term improvement in the training level of industrial operating staff in developing countries. At the same time, it will contribute to meeting the increasing demand for skilled personnel in the Egyptian oil and gas industries and, in particular, achieve the key development policy goal of know-how transfer through the train-the-trainer scheme.