abstract
From the day in 1859 that Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, English has been the lingua franca of the petroleum industry. As the quest for oil escalates into all areas of the world and as solutions to the world's energy needs become more complex, national and international oil companies compete to employ the best and brightest to ensure that the flow of precious hydrocarbons remains unabated.
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a state-owned petroleum producer that boasts some of the largest known oil reserves on the planet, perpetually finds it difficult to employ enough qualified English-speaking staff to manage its petroleum exploration, production, and distribution subsidiaries. Concerned about its inability to fill positions locally, ADNOC has attempted many local initiatives and has even been compelled to provide scholarships for Emirati citizens to be educated in institutions of higher learning in North America, Europe and Australia. Nevertheless, this national oil company has been forced to import expensive, qualified engineers from abroad. (Geologists, 2008).
Grateful for employment as well as a safe environment to raise their families, many of these foreign engineers have remained and prospered in the UAE while accepting second-class status in a land they can never really call their home. Many of these professionals are now clamoring, however, for opportunities for their own children to be able to remain and become educated into the petroleum professions on a fairer footing.
