PTDF gives 217 students overseas scholarship

The Petroleum Technology Development Fund has inaugurated 217 Nigerians for its 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 overseas scholarship programme.

The scholars comprise 170 fresh and four deferred master’s candidates, as well as 43 fresh PhD scholars, and will pursue courses in Environmental Remote Sensing, Offshore and Ocean Technology, Pipeline Engineering and other oil and gas-related courses in different universities abroad.

The Executive Secretary, PTDF, Mr. Femi Ojo, while declaring the induction programme open in Abuja, said the scholarship scheme did not hold last year due to financial challenges it faced, hence the merging of the entire process for last year and 2014.

He said the Fund had trained 2,412 MSc candidates in Petroleum Engineering, Gas Engineering, Petroleum Geo-Science, Offshore Engineering, Geology and other related oil and gas courses since the inception of the PTDF.

He added that 488 PhD scholars had also been trained overseas in related fields, adding that some of the ex-scholars currently work in the oil and gas industry and the academia.

Ojo said, “The Fund has also trained 74 university lecturers in its Skills Enhancement Training Programme, which is a train-the-trainer programme in Newcastle, United Kingdom and Grenoble in France. 20 others will be leaving Nigeria for Grenoble France in September this year.”

The main objective of the overseas scholarship scheme, according the PTDF boss, was to expose Nigerians to the latest technological advancements in the global petroleum industry and to accelerate the development of local capacities in an international competitive environment to enhance local content capacity.

Ojo said the non-availability of some core courses in Nigerian universities, which were paramount to oil and gas development, necessitated the need to send the scholars abroad to acquire relevant knowledge and state-of-the-art technology to fill up the skills gap in the industry.

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