ABOUT THE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN GEOSCIENCES AND PETROLEUM ENGINEERING: THE JOURNEY SO FAR

The Centre of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering was established in late 2012 after exhaustive planning and approvals from both the University of Benin (Senate and Management) and Shell Petroleum Development Company acting as a representative of the JV partners.  One of the major objective is to train skilled professional young graduates at the postgraduate level that will be ready for opportunities in the oil and gas industry work place.  To achieve these objectives, the collaboration between academia and industry as well as all disciplines in Science, Engineering and Technology will be encouraged in all areas of endeavour in the Centre.  

The establishment of the Centre in the University of Benin therefore sets: –

  1. To promote academia-industry linkage in a sustainable way, through industry presence in the university;
  2. To encourage and promote active research and development activities through active collaboration of academia and industry professionals and experts;
  3. To create opportunities for developing industry-ready man-power from Nigerian tertiary institutions; and
  4. To encourage international linkage and collaboration through Research and Development.

The Centre is administered by a Trust Deed endorsed by the Industry and the University of Benin.  The Deed and Governance Framework is implemented by the Board of Trustees (BoT).  The BoT is the highest administering Body and comprises the top management of the University and the Industry leaders.  The Academic programmes are managed and maintained by the Academic Board (AB) and the staff of the Centre.  The AB is made up of the lecturers and academic facilitators and is empowered to coordinate and guide the academic activities of the Centre and chaired by the Director.  The AB reports to the Senate on all academic processes

The Curriculum of the programs was developed by a team of academics, Oil and Gas specialists and Subject Matter Experts (SME). This ensured that the curriculum meets the highest standards of the university and in line with the latest concepts and developments in the industry. Benchmarking with international institutions also ensures quality. Professional bodies (SPE, NAPE and SEG) were engaged and have all endorsed the program. Regular appraisals are carried out with the view to keep pace with the latest technological developments and standards in both the industry and academia.  As part of this, both students and staff participate actively in seminars, workshops and local and international professional conferences.  Both staff and students of the Centre are active members of SPE, NAPE and SEG at the local and international levels.

The Centre offers Master’s Degree in: –

  • Changing Geopscience Education in Nigeria and Beyond for Sustainable DevelopmentIntegrated Petroleum Exploration and Evaluation Studies (Geology Option)
    • Integrated Petroleum Exploration and Evaluation Studies (Geophysics Option)
    • Integrated Petroleum Engineering and Production Studies

These programmes are aimed at developing skilled professionals in all key areas in the Oil and Gas sector (Exploration, Appraisal, Development and Production) including Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering.  On graduation, the students would have acquired the requisite skills to make them function effectively in the industry as young professionals with minimal industrial new-hire training.  The training programmes offered at the Centre ensure that the graduates are well equipped with the in-depth knowledge of the up-to-date concepts and skills, current technologies and methods. 

Team working, communication and leadership abilities are part of the emphasis. These make the graduates functional and productive in the multi-dimensional work place environment.  Significant emphasis is placed on multidisciplinary approach necessary for solving integrated subsurface problems in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering. Self-development training is part of an integral part of the program, designed to mould the students with the right attitudes and behaviour that are important in the industry workplace.  These enable the students reach their full potentials.  These soft skill sets are delivered by professionals from the Oil and Gas Companies as well as a well-chosen set of successful individuals with active industry and academic experience who can be seen as ‘role models’ and mentors.

The excellent facilities available at the Centre, as well as the overall design of the program courses, the delivery framework which has been benchmarked to meet the highest international standards, as well as the active participation of the industry Subject Matter Experts give CoE a unique and competitive edge.  In today’s competitive world, the right blend of learning objectives embedded in the curriculum of programs offered in the Centre and backed up with the latest technologies enable CoE to deliver quality and excellent learning for students that can compete favourably in the global market at the end of their training.

The success rate of the Centre’s graduates since inception, measured by how successful our graduates have been securing jobs after receiving our training is shown in Table 1. The Table shows that as of today (April, 2023), the Centre has graduated nine (9) sets comprising a total of 123 students. 82% of this number are gainfully employed, with 41% currently on tenured technical (some already on very senior) positions in major oil and gas companies in Nigeria, 20% are in the academia (some already Senior Lecturers in some Universities), while 22% are either in Government establishments or on Private Practice. Of note is the 86% job placement success rate of our recent graduates, i.e., the post COVID-19 (2021/2022) set, not minding the current rate of unemployment in Nigeria. This set graduated in September, 2022, and five (5) of them are already on tenured positions in the Oil and Gas companies as Trainee Processing Geophysicists, Trainee Geologists, and Petrophysicist.

Although the primary objective of the Centre is to produce industry-ready and highly qualified graduates that would be able to perform adequately in the industry workplace upon graduation, it also trains the students to be skilful in communication, presentation and research. A handful of our graduates interested in the academia, are at the moment at various stages of completion of their PhDs in reputable Universities in Canada, the United States of America, United Kingdom and Middle-East.  Some of them on teaching appointments in Nigerian Universities are already Senior Lecturers in those institutions. Thus in terms of contributions to nation-building, the Centre has lived up to the objectives of its establishment over the years.

Table 2 shows the distribution of Industrial Training placements since inception.  The management of the Centre continues to strive hard to get placements for all the students with the assistance of the major stakeholders who oblige us with their placements.

Table 1: Job Placement

*Lost one after graduation by natural cause

**One from the previous year

+ One dropped out for a foreign university admission

Table 2:  Industrial Training Placement

We place emphasis on our Industrial Training for the students to understand the subsurface concepts, advanced skills acquisition and to gain competence in current Oil and Gas technologies, as well as to develop further awareness in integrated workflows through implementation of “live projects’ for a focused research study. These projects are carried out in the industry workplace and are supported by industry in-house SMEs with live data sets donated by the industry stakeholders using their current technologies and hardware that is available in the companies.  Periodic and regular visits from the academic staff of the Centre ensures the process and milestones were adhered to in order to meet the academic standards of the University.  Overall, excellent feedbacks have always been received from the Companies.  These feedbacks help to re-emphasize the learning strategy and content which the Centre of Excellence sets for “young professional’ for the industry.

The Centre of Excellence relies greatly on a broad industry participation through various ‘partnering and support strategies’, for example, sponsorship and/or adoption of courses – Shell, Schlumberger, Halliburton, ADDAX and recently TotalEnergies, etc; students’ sponsorships – PTDF, etc;  provision of new technologies – Schlumberger, CGG Geosolution, Ikon Science, Cypher Crescent, etc; Live data – Industry, Books and Research materials – Industry and Individuals; Infrastructure for the Centre as well as other areas of choice to facilitate the attainment of the goals of the Centre.  The management of the Centre, from time to time, sends out proposals for support and partnering to potential stakeholders including industry and government, in a bid to expand the stakeholder base of the Centre and ensure its continued sustainability. We encourage industry participation in whatever form that is beneficial to the parties

Currently, the Centre is being supported by the Management of the University of Benin and the NNPC, Shell, TotalEnergies and Agip JV. The Centre is solely funded by SPDC and its JV partners, and in addition, SPDC provides the bulk of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for the delivery of most of the modules offered by the Centre. Other stakeholders which support the Centre include Schlumberger Nigeria Limited, Halliburton Energy Services and a host of other companies (Table 3). The Petroleum Technology Development Fund at some time extended the Local Scholarship Scheme (LSS) to the students of the Centre.

Table 3: Stakeholder Base

The Centre has also been endorsed by major professional bodies in the Oil and Gas sector in Nigeria, such as the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Society of Exploration of Geophysicists (SEG).  Starting from 2017 till date, the Centre has been awarded several professional accolades from from professional bodies including the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) and Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists. Some of these awards include:- the Best Geosciences Training Facility award in the Country; the best M.Sc. Geology thesis award and the best Geophysics Graduating student award.  In 2018, NMGS awarded the best Geology Thesis prize to a graduate of the Centre .The best Geophysics M.Sc graduate award for 2019 in the country was awarded to Mr Reasonable Aghimien, a graduate of the Centre.

After a global competition in early 2019, Mr Onome Okobiebi, a 2018 graduate of the CoE, came top in the SIS Global Forum in Monaco, France.  He was invited and fully sponsored to present his winning research results at the Global Forum in September 7-19, 2019.  Similarly, two other graduates – Malik and Abele were invited to make poster presentations at the same conference.  These feats present the highly global competitiveness of our programmes. Other top-rated Universities including Stanford have won this prize in earlier competitions. The three students did their internship in Shell Petroleum Development Company, Port Harcourt. 

Fast-forwarding to 2021, the Centre was awarded the Best Exhibiting University award by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) in 2021. In 2022, nine (9) academic papers were accepted for presentation at the 2022 NAPE Conference and Exhibition, Lagos, comprising six (6) oral and three (3) poster presentations. In all these presentations, the students were given accolades. Notably, Mr. Okiemute Enaughe, a 2022/2023 Geophysics student of the Centre in won the prize for the NAPE 2022 Best Poster presentation. A number of the students had won various prizes for coming top at quiz competitions organized by major companies, with prizes ranging from giant-ze microwave oven to toasters and other prizes. And in April 2023, Mr. Destiny Okolocha won the 1st prize in the SPE Port Harcourt 2023 Young Professionals Symposium Energy Challenge Contest. The Centre sustains excellence by constantly pushing to be in the fore front of learning by adjusting the programmes and curricula to follow the best and current global knowledge trends in module delivery and learning.

Table 4: Awards/Recognition

In general, the programme design and delivery framework of academic activities at the Centre aim to combine knowledge fundamentals and the core concepts, awareness and competences of key technologies and data, as well as first hand experiences from visits to workplaces to appreciate the implementation of workable solutions to a range of subsurface problems.  Integration of disciplines, skills sets, and team working is always our main target from the onset and throughout the program.  Seminars, conferences and workshops, presentation techniques and project implementation by the constituted integrated teams from the three disciplines are pursued.  Our goals, therefore are to partner for support to ensure we develop and grow a strong resource base for the industry with the right knowledge and skills.

The Centre is already developing a doctoral programme which should take off immediately after its approval by the University of Benin Senate.  The programme will take cognisance of the emerging trends and will incorporate Energy Studies to expand the activities of the Centre.  Interestingly, SPDC and her JV partners are already constructing a legacy building for the Centre.  This facility will house adequate physical infrastructure for the Centre, made up of lecture halls, seminar rooms, auditorium, laboratories and office spaces that will accommodate students, staff and subject matter experts needed for all the activities of the Centre.

As we continue to grow, the Centre is inviting close association with the oil and gas industry and other Energy practitioners in Nigeria and beyond. This association will be a symbiotic one to enable us meet our objectives in facilitating the local content objectives of the government and meeting the appropriate manpower needs of both the industry and the academia.  We must all continue to support the Centre to enable her continue to grow and meet the set objectives.

Prof. Difference O. Ogagarue

            Director,

        April, 2022