Waleed al Busaidi entered the company's history books after successfully completing his Doctor of Philosophy post-graduate degree in mechanical engineering at Cranfield University in the UK. The university also awarded him the Lefebvre Prize for 'Best Outstanding Thesis' at its School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, stated a press release.

Busaidi was congratulated by PDO Petroleum Engineering Director Dr Ali al Gheithy who was the company's first PhD scholar when he graduated in 1986.

The 84 men and 17 women are part of the 28th batch who successfully completed their courses in a range of disciplines since the company launched its flagship scholarship scheme.

Three qualified with PhDs and there were also 27 master of science (MSc) degrees, 30 from Distance Learning programmes and 19 bachelor degrees.

The successful scholars studied subjects including petroleum engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, geosciences and business studies at leading universities in Norway, Germany, the UK, Australia and Oman.

The official graduation ceremony was held under the auspices of H E Eng Salim al Aufi, Undersecretary in MOG, also honoured the second batch of 22 graduates from the pioneering Overseas Grants and Educational Support Scheme which PDO introduced in 2011 in response to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said's Postgraduate Studies Scholarships initiative.

The company prepared a comprehensive policy to support Omani staff requesting a release from duty so they could continue full-time education through other sponsors. Abdul Amir Abdul Hussein al Ajmi, external affairs and value creation director, PDO said, 'We congratulate all the successful scholars on these outstanding academic achievements.

'PDO's corporate vision is to be renowned and respected for the excellence of our people and the value we create for Oman and all our shareholders. And all those who have graduated are living embodiments of that vision.

Ajmi added, 'Reaching the milestone of 100 sponsored PhD graduates is not just a magnificent achievement for PDO, as a hydrocarbon exploration and production company, but also represents a wonderful wealth of specialised knowledge and expertise for the sultanate.

'More than 2,000 students have graduated through our scholarship scheme since it was launched in the 1980s.

Successful candidates in the latest batch of PDO graduates include Mohammed Mustafa al Humeid who won two prizes (Top Student and Best Poster, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK); Ahmed Nasser al Hadhrami who won a special award from the London Petrophysical Society for his academic ability; Ibrahim Saif al Risi (Top student and Best Dissertation, Majan College) and Musallam Salim al Ruzaiqi (Drilling Engineering Award for the Best Performance in Well Drilling Equipment and Operations, University of New South Wales in Australia).

PDO also celebrated the sixth batch of graduating scholars from the MSc programme in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering which is run in cooperation with the Sultan

Qaboos University. Six successful Ministry of Oil and Gas graduates also attended the ceremony.