PTDF to leverage NNPC, NCDMB capacity to boost R&D

Nigeria’s Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), has said it would leverage existing in-country capacity available at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), to address the challenges of research in the nation’s oil sector.

Speaking at a meeting organised for members of the National Board of Trustees (NBT) for the Research Endowment Programme, Executive Secretary of the agency, Bello Gusau said there was a need to localise oil and gas research and development in Nigeria.He said although the country is currently facing challenges, particularly of fund necessary for bridging the gap in research, it would deploy available solutions to ensure workable study of the country’s petroleum industry is available.

Gusua said Nigerians; especially members of the NBT, must find a holistic approach to establishment research facilities, adding that the Board had been meeting in the past month with the objectives of localising research in-country.

He said: “There is this complaint we have been coming across since the life of the PTDF, which is that we cannot do research if we do not have the necessary facility to do that. The fact of the matter is that I have seen that in many of the instances that we listed, there are instances whereby people had to go to some other countries to access facilities. This should not be the case.

“One of the things I really want us to put on the table in the cause of this meeting is how do we take care of that problem? What do we do about that? We have had a few meetings in the last six months; we are trying to bring many industry players together.
 
“Presently, the NNPC Research and Development Department is on board; the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board is on also. We want to work together to see how we can make facilities available for researches across the country, especially those researches that are dedicated to the oil and gas industry. I am hoping this meeting would kick-start that process.”