IN its quest to stem the tide of unemployment in Nigeria, Addax Petroleum Development Limited, in collaboration with the Nigerian NationalPetroleum Corporation, said it has trained over 600 youths in select vocations from its host communities in three Niger Delta states of Imo, Akwa Ibom and Rivers at the Federal Technical College, Omoku, Rivers States.

Nigerian youths

This is coming at a time the company plans to investment about $3-5 billion to optimize its operations in Nigeria and increase production from its existing assets, both onshore and offshore, part of which includes its current drilling activities in the Njaba field in the oil mining lease, OML 124.

The scheme known as Technical Skill Acquisition Programme (TSAP) has enabled community youths to be trained on selected vocations such as fabrication, welding, tailoring, computer science/computer training, carpentry among others, thus developing their entrepreneurial skills.

A statement from the company stated that at the end of each training session, “Addax Petroleum donated tools and equipment to assist them set-up small scale businesses in their chosen vocation. Thus far, significant amounts have been expended on this scheme.”

According to Addax, “The first oil producer in this drilling campaign was recently drilled and completed ahead of schedule and at significantly lower cost than budget. Preliminary well test results have also exceeded projected average oil production potential.”

In its 19 years of operation, Addax was said to have produced over 425 million barrels of crude oil since it took over operatorship of Oil prospecting Licenses (OPLs) 98/118 and OPLs90/225 previously operated by Ashland Nigeria  Oil Company  which operated the blocks from 1973-1998.

According to the company, since the 2009 SINOPEC takeover, Addax Petroleum/NNPC PSC  has invested over $5 billion and generated over $7 billion for the Nigerian government, investments that have over the years resulted in job creation for residents of its operating host communities, and funding critical community projects in the areas of agriculture, health and education.