By Grace Udofia

PETROLEUM Technology Development Fund, PTDF, said the current economic reality prompted by global drop in oil price has made it imperative for it to review its overseas scholarship operations with a move towards focusing on Nigerian universities.

Executive Secretary, PTDF, Dr. Bello Aliyu Gusau, who led a team of its Management to a consultative meeting with officials of the Cranfield university, United Kingdom, stated that it is fundamental to review and restructure the existing partnership and come up with more creative ways of working together.

“I am happy Cranfield has seen the possibility of in-country co-operation because at the moment we are in the process of working with our own facilities, that we put in place for various programmes, so it’s really an important issue that we want, going forward, to put on the table.

“What we have actually focused on is the split-site PhD programmes and these are some of the issues that we want going forward to work with a university like Cranfield, to see how we can really put that in place either in some of our facilities or in any of the Nigerian universities that we are working with.

“But for us, the most important reason for coming here, is for the routine we are engaging or hoping to do, which is the new structure that involves synergy between Power and Energy”.

Gusau further explained that with a renewed focus on gas by the Federal Government, PTDF will be interested in developing the relevant manpower to service all the activities arising from the new attention to gas, the rapid development of power stations to involve supply of gas, and the development of other gas infrastructure such as gas pipelines and processing facilities for gas development.

In his response Director of Energy and Power, Cranfield University, Professor Feargal Brennan, expressed satisfaction to work with PTDF in developing local content for Nigeria’s oil and gas industry especially with regard to the localisation of the training of Nigerian students through an equal partnership concept with the Cranfield University.