The Petroleum Technology Development Fund
(PTDF) on Tuesday in Abuja called on oil
companies operating in Nigeria to employ
Nigerian professionals who passed through PTDF
capacity building programmes.
A statement issued by Head, Press and External
Relations of PTDF, Mr Kalu Otisi, said the
employment of Nigerians would help in the
development of the nation’s oil and gas sector.
The statement quoted the Executive Secretary of
PTDF, Mr Femi Ajayi, as saying that 90 per cent
of Nigerian oil was produced by Joint Venture
Companies (JVC).
The Federal Government equity share in the
project is 60 per cent, while 40 per cent is for the
International oil companies (IOC) ,the statement noted.
Ajayi said it was important to have Nigerian
professionals dominating the sector since the
country had the larger share of JVC.
He said PTDF spent huge sums in manpower
development through research and training of
Nigerians in engineering, geology, geosciences,
management, economics and relevant fields in the
petroleum and solid mineral sectors.
“If we put so much money in training these
people and they don’t have any value
domestically, it means that we are spending
without getting result. We need political will to
compel oil companies to employ our trained
professionals to work in the sector. We don’t
need to wait for them to do that, they need to be
compelled to do so,’’ Ajayi said.
He said that by so doing, government would be
getting value for the money spent in training,
research and development.
The statement said in a bid to promote capacity,
PTDF had also pioneered a competition on a
research grant.
It said that the competition, initiated in 2008 with
five awardees selected from over 100 research
proposals, had been peer reviewed.
It said the second phase of the programme
recorded breakthroughs leading to three
intellectual property rights and patent certificates.
The statement said that three out of the five topics
in the third phase had shown high prospects of
securing intellectual property rights and patents in
the coming months, having been found to be
commercially viable.
"The third topic on development of Novel
Technology for diagnosing and remediating
problems associated with oil field, reservoir
sourcing and corrosion in the petroleum industry
has proved to have economic significance. This
year’s close-out session is a celebration of
excellence and success story. Five outstanding
researches are being concluded and these
researches are found to be commercially viable.
The fund has therefore put in place actions to file
for intellectual rights and patency at the Ministry
of Industry, Trade and Investment,’’ the statement
said.
Meanwhile, the Co-ordinator, Nigeria’s Honorary
International Investor Council, Baroness Linda
Chalker, has said that the mandate of PTDF in
building capacity for oil and gas industry is
critical to the survival of the industry.
“Unless you build capacity you would not get the
best out of your industry and it doesn’t matter
whether it is in the oil industry or any other
industry. Capacity building helps government to
make better use of their resources,” the statement
quoted Chalker as saying.
Chalker said that for such trainings to be
meaningful and sustainable, trainees must be
effectively engaged and made to practice the skills
they acquired in the course of their training.
She, however, advised PTDF to adopt dialogue
with JVC partner oil firms in respect of the
employment of Nigerians.
“You need to know if the IOCs value the training
you are giving as appropriate to their needs to fill
their skills gaps. Unless you do that, and you
don’t do it just once off, you have to repeat it and
update it to make sure the training you are giving
is what the customer wants,’’ Chalker said in the
statement.
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