Wearing a white lab coat and a face mask, Chadian man Tidjani Daoussa follows the instructions of a Chinese technician as he learns to operate refining and hydrogen production equipment.
Daoussa, 32, is an employee at N’Djamena Refinery Co., Ltd., a Chad-based joint venture between China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Chad’s state-owned oil company. He joined the company in 2017 after graduating from the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) with a degree in petroleum engineering.
Daoussa is one of 30 Chadians who arrived in Jiuquan, northwest China’s Gansu Province, in late May to participate in a three-month training program offered by CNPC’s Yumen Oilfield.
“We provide them with courses on skills improvement, safety and emergency preparedness, and cross-cultural exchange,” said Jiang Rui, an employee of Yumen Oilfield. He added that the goal is to train more than 1,000 Chadian workers in five years, gradually introducing CNPC’s vocational skills standards in Chad.
Under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Gansu has been promoting high-quality cooperation with BRI partner countries in its key industries, including petroleum refining, solar energy and dryland farming. An increasing number of Chinese scientists and technicians are playing vital roles in this effort.