Scotland’s oil and gas industry centres of excellence

Scotland’s 15 universities continue to build on the nation’s proud history of innovation and world-class research and development.

A culture of collaboration has seen many of our universities forge strong links with the oil and gas industry. That commitment to research and development continues to drive the sector today as well offering Scotland’s oil and gas companies the ideal platform for diversifying into Scotland’s burgeoning renewable energy sector.

Scotland’s oil and gas centres of excellence include:

• University of Aberdeen Oil and Gas Centre – building on the University’s close links with the industry and promoting oil and gas related activities
• University of Dundee Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy – internationally renowned graduate school in the field of international business transactions, natural resources, energy law, and policy
• Heriot-Watt University Institute of Petroleum Engineering – UK’s largest PE research programme, focuses on upstream oil and gas reserves and works with the industry to forge links around the world
• Robert Gordon University Centre for Research in Energy and the Environment – focus for collaborative research in the built environment, energy policies and economics

Oil and gas industry collaboration

Scotland’s universities have a long trackrecord of forging close links with industry. In the oil and gas sector this includes:

• Orkney - International Centre for Island Technology partners are Heriot-Watt University, University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) and Total
• Edinburgh – University of Edinburgh spin out company MTEM Ltd, now Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS)
• Aberdeen – University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University and University of Dundee industry partners include Shell, BP and Chevron

Partnership working between universities includes:

• EaStCHEM – University of St Andrews and University of Edinburgh, work include gas to liquids research
• Northern Research Partnership – research across the oil and gas industry as part of the Energy and Clean Technology joint research initiative