Malaysia will need 500 new drilling engineers for the next 5 years to replace retired drilling engineers in oil and gas industry. New projects such as Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC) and Risk Sharing Contracts (RSC) for marginal and stranded fields have attracted new entrants like Hibiscus Energy, SONA Petroleum, Dialog Group, Sapura Kencana, Coastal Energy, ROC, etc., which have added the demand for drilling engineers. Taking into account rig and drilling contractors like UMW Oil & Gas, Tanjung Offshore, Perisai Petroleum etc, the demand for drilling engineers is expected to remain high. Current number of drilling engineers in Malaysia is estimated at 1000 based on the number of rigs operating in Malaysia. The ratio of expatriate and local drilling engineer is 1:4. Based on industry survey, training a drilling engineer requires roughly RM 1.2 million over 5 years.

The offering of a Master in Drilling Engineering programme is expected to fast track the development of local drilling engineers to meet the high demand and to heed the nation's call as part of the Economic Transformation Programme.