PTDF, Others, Donate Seismic Software to Universities

    The Nigerian content initiative in the oil and gas industry has received a boost with the donation of modern seismic interpretation software and training worth $4 million to four Nigerian universities by Danvic Concepts International Nigeria and its partner, dGB Earth Sciences of Netherlands. The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) sponsored the required training in the four universities – Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti; Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki; Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso, Oyo State; and Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State. Prior to this, over 20 federal universities spread across the six geopolitical zones had benefited from similar donation. The enactment of the Nigeria Content law, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), coupled with the different intervention of the PTDF in human capacity development in the form of scholarships, research grants, facility grants and partnership with private sectors have brought about great development in the oil and gas sector. The partnership between PTDF and Danvic concepts, an indigenous oil and gas service company with a training arm, is said to be achieving landmark success. Danvic Concepts International under the leadership of Dr. Mayowa Afe, a past president of the Nigerian Association Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and the PTDF have been working together to ensure an all-round development of the oil and gas sector. In a statement at the weekend, Mayowa said this synergy had ensured the transfer of technology and knowledge from the industry to academia, for onward passage to students. “This way, the knowledge gap between the oil and gas industries and the universities can be bridged. The lecturers are taught practical seismic interpretation using industry base software. Danvic Concepts international and her technical partner, dGB earthsciences (Netherlands) the copywrite owners of OpendTect seismic interpretation tools have donated academic licenses worth more than $5 million to Nigerian universities. “The company also source for oil companies to donate work stations to these universities, so that after teaching the lecturers and installing the academic licenses on the work stations, they can also teach their students and carry out researches using the software.  Companies like Esso, Sapetro and Chevron have also been of assistance in these regards,” he explained. Recently, lecturers in Geoscience departments of Ebonyi State University, Ekiti State University, Niger State University and Lautech University were all trained by Danvic Concepts under the sponsorship of PTDF. Additionally, the schools will also be getting workstations courtesy of Esso. This partnership is helping to increase the quality of the graduates coming out of the Nigerian universities and ultimately increasing the quality of available indigenous manpower available for employment in the sector. “If this partnership is further strengthened and encouraged, in a very short while, oil companies will rely less on employing graduates of foreign universities and the desired transformation in the sector will be a reality. Already, over a 100 lecturers across different universities in Nigeria that have been trained by Danvic concepts international  are desiring more, and more can actually still be done in terms of bridging the technology gap between the academia and oil and gas companies,” Mayowa added.