With the end of the first year in sight, the Obafemi Awolowo University’s Geology Department in the southwest of Nigeria, looks forward to a second batch of students for its new, skill based Master’s degree in Petroleum Geosciences, Petroleum Geophysics and Petroleum Geochemistry. The new year is expected to commence on 2nd April, 2013. Last year’s batch of students are rounding up at the end of March 2013.
“We have in our first year assembled an excellent team of instructors from Government, Industry and Academia, each one of them an expert in his own area of specialization, who shares our vision of producing in Nigeria well-grounded graduates with the modem technical and interpersonal skills required by prospective employees”, says Omar Rahaman (professor), who is co-ordinating the programme.
The students have access to eight Microsoft Windows-based Workstations donated by Shell and Landmark and equipped with the Geographix Discovery software; four UNIX Based Workstations donated by ExxonMobil and Schlumberger and equipped with the interpretation software Geoframe. There are also four pairs of high end desktop computers donated by geoscience graduates of OAU who work for Chevron Nigeria. Apart from Geographix and Geoframe, the 12 workstations are also equipped with such software as Opendtect donated by dGB, a Dutch geophysical company and its Nigerian partners Danvic Concept. The Kingdom suite software was donated by Seismic Micro Technology at the instance of B.D Ako, a professor of geophysics at the University. There is also RockDoc software, donated by Ikon Science, a UK based geophysical company. Perhaps the biggest catch however, is the Petrel software, donated by Schlumberger. In the oil industry today, Petrel is the most robust software for interpretation. It started “life” as a software for reservoir characterization. Now it is being increasingly used for basic seismic interpretation.
Rahaman says that the department is seeking funding for the
- Appointment of a Director of Studies of Professorial Status to coordinate and administer the programmes and provide liaison between Sponsors, Industry, Government, Non-Government Agencies and Students,
- Appointment of an ICT Manager of Technologist status to manage the V-SAT and sixty desktop computers and laptops, which are among the facilities provided by The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) as part of its upgrade intervention of programme of the Department. These need to be managed by someone who knows how to do so.
- Scholarship for students. The tuition fee for each of the courses is N 1,000,000.00 (one million naira) only per student. It covers the cost of instructions and instructional materials, fieldwork for a minimum of 16 days and computer time but does not include board, feeding, purchase of books, e.t.c.
The department has scheduled, for career talks, the hours between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of every month starting from April 2013 through to November 2013, to be delivered by professionals working in Government and Industry. “This activity will provide the opportunity for prospective employers and the students to interact with one another and for the employers to hunt amongst the students for prospective employees”.
