Source-Thisday
The Nigerian Content initiative of the Federal Government has received a big boost as Danvic Petroleum International Nigeria and her partner, dGB Earth Sciences Netherlands are set to donate modern seismic interpretation software and training worth $1 million to Covenant University, Ota Ogun State.
Chief Executive Officer of Danvic Petroleum, Dr. Mayowa Afe said in a statement at the weekend that through this initiative, Danvic would also provide the requisite training to both the students and lecturers of the Department Geophysics, Applied Physics and Petroleum Engineering.
“This is done in an attempt to make Nigerian University graduates industry ready and reduce the cost of training and re-training after graduation particularly in the face of dwindling oil price. In the private university category, Covenant University will be the second beneficiary of this this type of support / strategic collaboration with the oil and gas industry after Wesley University of Science & Technology (WUSTO) Ondo. The Proprietor of Wesley University of Science and Technology, Ondo is Methodist Church Nigeria While the Proprietor of Covenant University, Ota-Ogun State is Presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church led by Bishop Oyedepo,” Afe explained..
According to him, more than 20 Federal and State universities spread across the six geopolitical zones had benefited from similar donation.
Afe noted that transforming Nigeria will require the efforts of all stakeholders, the government, the private sector and the general public.
“To have the Nigeria of our dream, all these stakeholders must make concerted efforts and work as a team to take the nation to the desired height. No matter the approach employed to achieve this desire, one thing remains constant; the human resources required to make the change or drive the approach to the desired transformation. It can therefore never be over emphasised that human capacity development remains the most important factor in transforming any nation,” he added.
Afe said the enactment of the Nigeria Content law, and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), coupled with the different intervention of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in human capacity development inform of scholarships, research grants, facility grants and partnership with private sectors had brought about unprecedented development in the sector.
He stated that one of this partnership that is achieving landmark success and worthy of mentioning is that between Covenant University and his company, which is an indigenous oil and gas service company with a training arm and with operations both in Nigeria and United States of America.
He further stated that his company has been working to ensure an all-round development of the oil and gas sector.
“This synergy ensures the transfer of technology and knowledge from the industry to the academia, for onward passage to the students. This way, the knowledge gap between the oil & gas industries and the universities can be bridged. The students and lecturers are taught practical seismic interpretation using industry base software. Danvic and her technical partner, dGB Earth sciences (Netherlands) the copy write owners of OpendTect seismic interpretation tools have donated academic licenses worth more than $5 million to Nigerian universities,” Afe added.
Under the Danvic Petroleum and Covenant Strategic iniative practical seismic interpretation teaching are to be incorporated into the university curriculum. This is to make the graduate of the university relevant to the need of the oil and gas industry after graduation.