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| TEEX have joined with Qatar Petroleum to build a premier EMS training facility |
TEEX is collaborating with state-owned Qatar Petroleum to build a premier emergency services training facility in Ras Laffan, Qatar, to serve emergency responders from throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
The Ras Laffan Emergency and Safety Training College is situated on 200 acres and when completed in 2010, will include training props for industrial, HazMat, municipal, rescue and emergency medical services, said Robert Moore, Associate Director of TEEX's Emergency Services Training Institute (ESTI).
"It's a large-scale, Brayton-type training facility, and we were involved in the design of the facility and the props," said Moore. "We recently signed a multi-million-dollar agreement for TEEX to staff and operate the training facility for Qatar Petroleum for the first five years. Then the staffing will migrate over to Qatar Petroleum, and eventually the training facility will become a TEEX Cooperative Learning Center."
Moore expects to hire a general manager for the Ras Laffan Emergency and Safety Training College by the end of this year, and in early 2010, he will begin hiring coordinators, instructors and support staff. He projects that full staffing will require approximately 30 employees on-site in Qatar. "TEEX-ESTI is providing the curriculum and offering the same certifications and credentials we offer at Brayton Fire Training Field," he added.
"This is a very big operation, and the culmination of about five years of assessments, collaboration and negotiation," Moore said. "We'll begin staffing slowly as we see the demand for training grow in the region. The vision is for this to be the primary training facility for emergency responders in the Middle East and North Africa."
In addition, the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M University and TEEX-ESTI are working with Qatar Petroleum and the Qatar Foundation, Texas A&M University at Qatar, and other industries in the design and operation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) safety research program at the Ras Laffan campus. The program is patterned on a similar LNG program conducted at the Brayton Fire Training Field in College Station.
