The management of the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Delta State, on Friday unveiled assorted domesticated facilities for trainings in crude oil refineries while urging captains of industry in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria and the entire African continent to look inward for trainings “in all aspects of petroleum Industry operations.”
The Principal and Chief Executive of PTI, Henry Adimula, while addressing a world press conference as part of activities marking the Institute’s 50th anniversary, noted that, “These facilities should serve as a platform for domesticating trainings in the industry and thus saving vital foreign exchange for the nation’s economy”.
He noted with delight that ” (The) PTI is equipped with state-of-the-art training facilities designed to offer realistic training and skill development in virtually all areas of petroleum industry operations, notably drilling, well interventions, surface well test, coiled tubing, pipe handling and refinery operations.”
He explained that the Institute’s infrastructure and procurement upgrade facilitated by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund had “uniquely positioned the PTI as the only Institute in sub-Saharan Africa with the magnitude of training facilities that can address the contemporary training needs of workers of the oil and gas industry on the continent.”
The Principal reviewed the activities of the PTI since inception in 1972, submitting that “the last 50 years of the life of this Institute were glorious years of exceptional delivery of training, innovation and technological development.”
He stated that, “As the world grapples with energy transition from the exploitation and utilisation of fossil fuels to cleaner and more environmentally friendly sources of energy, the Petroleum Training Institute has taken a bold stride in kick-starting research and development effort that take cognisance of the peculiarity of the Africa situation.”
He added, “With the estimated 125 billion barrels of crude oil reserves and over 600 tcf of gas reserves in Africa, it is our considered opinion that Africa should not hasten to abandon fossil fuel but should strive to deepen research and development of local technologies that enable the exploitation and beneficiation of our oil and gas endowment in a more environmentally friendly manner as the reality of global demand for fossil fuel is expected to linger for the next 50 years.
“Today, we are confronted with the grim reality that only a few African countries have been able to master certain aspect of oil production technology but none can research, design and fabricate key machinery for the industry.
“Thus the Institute intends to focus research on this key area in order to develop local content capacity in oil technology to enable our country to achieve some independence in the design and production of technology for the oil industry.
“This endeavour is all the more critical since the foreign expertise we solely rely on for our oil and gas potential has developed a sudden apathy for the exploitation of the hydrocarbons in the wake of the allurement of the energy transmission.
“This serves as a wake up call for our indigenous Institutes to engage in research in order to develop local production technology in the oil and gas industry to address Africa’s perennial challenges of poverty and energy shortages.”
Adimula, however, revealed that PTI also focuses on research for alternative and renewable energy sources and off grid solar contraptions “in anticipation of the global energy transitions,” explaining that the Institute’s two-pronged vision on research and development in the next 50 years is consistent with the African reality.
“Our vision for the next fifty years is for PTI to be the Energy training hub in Africa where our training, research and development effort will be all encompassing as the whole ambit of the energy mix shall be the subject of training, research and development”, the Principal maintained.
Activities commemorating the 50th Anniversary celebration of the PTI, according to Adimula, will be flagged off on October 13, 2022 with a one-day conference and award night at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund in Abuja and subsequently from October 21 to October 29, 2022 at the Institute’s campus in Effurun, where a series of other programmes have been outlined culminating in the Institute Convocation ceremony on October 29, 2022.
