President James Michel met with the Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec), Mr. Conrad Benoiton, and a Seypec staff member, Martin Roucou, at State House this morning.

Mr Roucou is a Seychellois marine engineer who was named Outstanding Student for 2012 at the National Maritime College of Ireland, upon completion of a BSc in Marine and Plant Engineering during a four year degree programme, which was sponsored by Seypec. Also present during the meeting was the Secretary General of the Executive Office of the President, Mrs. Lise Bastienne, and the Seypec Crewing Manager, Mr. Alain Asba.

The President congratulated Mr. Roucou on his outstanding performance and urged him to do even better in his career.

“I congratulate you on your perseverance in your studies and the excellent results you achieved. Continue to learn, continue to work well, so that you can progress in the ranks of the company. You have shown that a small nation such as Seychelles can achieve greatness. I count on you to make our country shine ,” said President Michel.

Martin Roucou will be joining the petroleum tanker Seychelles Progress as Third Engineer in the coming weeks, and will continue to do his training for higher levels of responsibility.

"I felt very honoured to receive the award. I really appreciated it, especially being to be from a small country and to get this award among all the other nationalities who studied there, I felt privileged. It showed me that hard work is rewarded...I would like to work towards becoming a Second Engineer in the future, " said Martin Roucou.

Mr. Roucou was part of a group of 33 Seychellois students undertaking their studies at the National Maritime College of Ireland, Cork,  of which 8 graduated in 2012. Seypec has a total of 22 Seychellois cadets training in various categories on the petroleum tankers it owns, in order to ensure the future crews of the ships retain Seychellois expertise and seamanship.