The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), says it plans to establish two world class laboratories in the country to sample analysis in the oil and gas industry as well as curb capital flight. The laboratories which would cost N500 million each, when established would save the time of of obtaining results instead of taking analysis abroad, a practice estimated to cost several hundreds of millions, said Aminu Galadima Ahmed, executive secretary of PTDF on Tuesday in Abuja while speaking at the National Board of Trustees Meeting on Endowment Fund.
The decision to establish the laboratories is in line with the resolve of the Fund to drive efficiency in its approach to research and development of indigenous manpower in the oil and gas sector, he added. In his words, Ahmed explained that, “in the last NBT meeting, it was agreed that PTDF would establish six specialized laboratories in the six geopolitical zones. However, the fund has adopted a new strategic plan that would drive efficiency in our approach to research and development through the establishment of two standard world-class analytical laboratories in the country”.
The PTDF spends N25 million annually on one chair and N150 million on six chairs to carry out research in the oil and gas sector.
According to the executive secretary, the Fund is also partnering with the research and development department of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to ensure that all new research areas by any chair occupants is industry focused and designed from the commencement of the research to address industry identified challenges.
While enjoining the chair occupants to provide solutions, innovations, and technology to the industry towards achieving national development objectives, he equally hinted that the NNPC has a standard laboratory which would be made available for their use. At the meeting, various chairs of the universities gave highlights of their research works.
Mosto Onuoha, a professor of petroleum geology at University of Nigeria Nsukka said they have covered a lot of ground in understanding petroleum systems of the Anambra basin particularly to understand the mode of hydro carbon occurrence. He noted that more studies about the timing and prospects of petroleum in the area have been done, saying oil which was discovered in Anambra as far back as 1971 has not been explored.
