The Federal Government has charged the academia to contribute both technologically and otherwise in the development of the Nigerian oil industry.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, gave the charge in Abuja on the occasion of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Roundtable 2021, which was organised for the development of FUPRE.
He said, “We have been producing crude oil since the late 1950s. So we can safely call our territory a mature territory. But what have we contributed in terms of technology to the oil and gas sector?
“If you go to other places like Norway where oil is also produced, the production of oil tools competes very actively in terms of earnings with oil production itself. So it is actually categorised as a sector, oil tools and services sector.”
Sylva added, “and many times that sector even overtakes, in terms of earnings of oil production. So oil production as a sector and oil tools/services sector compete very actively.
“But in Nigeria we don’t have very active oil service and technology sector. So all of us tend to depend on the oil production sector, which today is not doing very well for many reasons.”
The minister stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had eroded the value in the oil sector and occasioned major cuts in production leading to a drop in earnings.
Sylva told participants at the event that Nigeria had changed and so it was expected that the educational system would also change.
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He stressed that the country’s need had changed as Nigeria was now in need of technologies to solve its problems.
The minister said, “This is another phase in the educational development of Nigeria and it is for us to actually begin to research into our problems and find solutions to these problems.
“The first phase of the educational system produced its geniuses that we are very proud of today. Has the second phase produced geniuses that are contributing to developing technologies that are acknowledged globally?
“I am not the one to answer that question. But what I will say is that that need accentuates the need now for collaboration between the academia and industry, especially in our oil sector.”
He stated that universities should come up with technologies that would boost the country’s oil sector, adding that opportunities abound in the oil services space.
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