Published:
Students from the three MSc programmes delivered by the Institute of Petroleum Engineering (IPE) were the first official groups to use the new core viewing facilities in the British Geological Survey's (BGS) Lyell Centre 2. The visits took place between 17 and 19 May 2016.
This annual planned visit to the BGS core store facilities is of enormous benefit to the students giving them the opportunity to see real geological cores from the oil and gas fields that they will be studying as part of their field development project.
Having the core store so close to IPE's teaching base has opened up opportunities for additional visits and use of related facilities, such as microscopes and thin section collections. The MSc students from all of IPE's programmes are definitely going to have a more enriched learning experience.
Professor Patrick Corbett said of the visits "Heriot-Watt students have been using the BGS core store in Edinburgh for 25 years and now, thanks to this excellent facility being opened next door to IPE as part of the Lyell Centre, there will be even closer engagement with real North Sea datasets in our teaching and research activities."
Lyell Centre 2
The new Lyell Centre 2 building is located in the Edinburgh Campus Research Avenue South and has been designed to accommodate the Scottish Teaching Collection. The collection was specifically requested by the Scottish universities when the majority of the core collection was moved south to Keyworth on the closure of the Gilmerton Facility.
BGS staff members are currently in the process of relocating to the Heriot-Watt site and setting up the facility. Despite this, the visiting students were made to feel welcome and were able to view cores from the Scottish Teaching Collection in the new viewing laboratory.
We are grateful to Michael Togher, Curator of Mineralogy & Petrology at British Geological Survey, for hosting these visits.