Peace Obi
To deepen the study of Geosciences in Nigerian tertiary institutions and link the academia with the oil and gas industry, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Danvic Petroleum International have acquired OpendTect Seismic Interpretation Software worth over $1.2m for six universities in the country.
The universities also received geo-science workstations that were donated by international oil companies for the training of students and stakeholders in the oil sector.
Speaking in Abuja recently at the opening ceremony for the training of 18 lecturers of Geology and Geophysics on the software, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Simbi Wabote said that the use of the software and workstations would significantly improve the skills of stakeholders in Nigeria’s oil sector.
The scope of the training which include Software training, Hardware maintenance, Data processing and Interpretation had the participating lecturers drawn from six universities, three each from Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State; Federal University of Technology (FUT) Owerri, Imo State; Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna, Niger State; Federal University of Technology (FUT) Akure, Ondo State; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State and the University of Maiduguri, Borno State.
In his speech, Wabote who disclosed that Danvic Petroleum and her oversea partner, dGB Earth Sciences Netherlands provided the OpendTect Software free of charge, adding that the cost of the software for the six universities amounted to over US$1.2m. The ES who was represented by the Director, Planning Research and Statistics, NCDMB, Mr Patrick Daziba Obah said the multinational companies that donated workstations that would hoist the software include ExxonMobil, Chevron and Sapettro.
According to Wabote the training, donation of the software and workstations fall within the NCDMB’s Adopt a Faculty (AAFac) Initiative, adding that the initiative seeks to link academic institutions with the oil and gas industry through deliberate interventions in the areas of infrastructure development, learning and knowledge exchange, alignment of curriculum.
Speaking also, the Managing Director of Danvic Petroleum, Dr Mayowa Afe expressed optimism that knowledge of the software by the university lecturers will enhance the training of students in Geology and Geophysics, thereby making them more employable and relevant to the needs of the oil and gas industry after graduation.
He noted that such programmes would also help to address the sitution where oil and gas companies prefer foreign expatriates to graduates produced by Nigerian universities because of the knowledge gap, particularly in specialized areas of the oil and gas industry, where exposure to update to technology is necessary.
He said the training would “increase the employment potential of students after graduation thereby reducing their exposure to violent and criminal activities, validate skills and knowledge of lecturers for effective training and teaching of future geoscientists and achieve deeper specialization with a widely used automated tool in the oil and gas market.”
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