By Augustine Okezie
Abuja
The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), has expressed its readiness to partner relevant stakeholders on any genuine collaboration and linkage programmes that would support Nigeria’s participation in domesticating solutions to problems in the petroleum sector.
PTDF executive secretary, Mr. Olufemi Ajayi, who made the declaration in Abuja on the occasion of Peer Review Mechanism workshop on Researches in the oil and gas sector, described the researches as capable of solving specific industry problems and contributing to the oil and gas value-chain.
Olufemi further acknowledged the impact of several graduates and under graduate scholarship training programmes the agency had sponsored on the oil and gas sector, adding that so far 351 graduates have been trained locally while 761 scholars have been trained abroad.
He said: “As part of our committed efforts aimed at minimising the enormous skills gap in the industry, PTDF carried out structured skills gap audit to identify existing and potentials skills gap as the basis for its programme implementation. The fund also trained certified welders in the international welder’s certification programme.”
The two-day Annual Oil and Gas Research Grant Competition Peer Review Exercise drew the attendance of lead researchers from different tertiary institutions and professional bodies all over the country that were expected to make presentations to the five working groups at the workshop.
