Not a silly question at all... The PC is officially open to contractors to the O&G industry, provided they belong to a 'list' of such companies updated by AF. Unfortunately such a list is not public and I don't know to what extent it includes smaller (or tier 2+) contractors in particular those not working much with French major players like Total and Technip. It might be worth to A. try to register online B. to involve your corporate TA if plan A fails so that your company can be added to the list.