APT hires young talent
19-year-old Andrea Kirkeby has landed a job with the world’s leading laboratory specialised in petroleum geochemistry.
Not many people know that in the middle of Groruddalen in Oslo, Norway, some of the international oil industry’s best geochemists have their specialist laboratory. From Kalbakken in Oslo, Norway, Applied Petroleum Technology (APT) conducts geochemical and biostratigraphic analyses, which provide valuable data that the oil companies use in licensing applications and in search of more oil and gas, or to optimise production from existing reservoirs.
After spending the last two years as an apprentice at APT, 19-year-old Andrea Kirkeby has received a job offer as a laboratory technician in the company. She was born and raised at Kalbakken.
“Instead of going the more traditional route, I went to study laboratory subjects at Porsgrunn high school where I learned about engineering and industrial production. For two years I worked as a professional laboratory apprentice for APT at Kalbakken. I have been very happy working here and feel that I have been treated the same aso other employees, despite being young and relatively inexperienced,” she says.
A professional laborant or laboratory technician is a person who works with material testing, biochemistry / micro and molecular biology and chemical analysis, usually in a laboratory, either for an industrial company, at a hospital, university or college, or for a public or semi-public company.
“Some might say that this is an unusual career choice for someone my age. In addition to being interested in the subject, I am a very neat and accurate person, and I enjoy working independently, which is an advantage in this type of profession. However, I did not plan to start my career in the oil industry. That was more coincidental,” she says.
At APT, Andrea has among other things analysed oil and rock samples and studied drilling samples from Norwegian and foreign continental shelves on behalf of a number of oil companies. The results are utilised to identify where it is most likely to find oil or gas, and to gain an understanding of what kind of discoveries we are looking at, plan drilling operations, field and reservoir development.
“Since the company was founded, APT has contributed with analyses that have helped to form the basis for decision making for several major discoveries on the Norwegian continental shelf, including Johan Sverdrup and Johan Castberg. Today, we are the leading player in our field, with most of the large, international oil companies as our clients,” says Geir Hansen, who heads APT’s geochemistry department.
“Andrea made a very good impression during her time as an apprentice at APT, and she recently completed the laboratory test with brilliant results. Despite challenging periods in the industry, investing in young talents such as Andrea will always be important to us,” Hansen concludes.