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Following the ongoing war against oil theft and its variants in the Niger Delta, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, on Saturday, said that Nigeria losses about 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day to oil theft.
Sylva made the disclosure at the 2022 Graduation Ceremony of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.
The minister was represented by Ambassador Gabriel Aduda, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
He also said that the Federal Government was making concerted effort to curtail the menace.
According to him, crude oil theft had impacted negatively on the nation’s revenue and foreign exchange income.
“Oil theft has denied the country of an estimated 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The adverse effect of this is the drop in the production of crude oil and declined in the national income,” he said.
Sylva said that PTI as an indispensable organ aligned itself with the agenda of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources through research directorates.
He said that the petroleum ministry would synergised with the National Assembly to ensure that adequate attention was paid to the amendment of the PTI Acts.
Sylva said that the institute could achieve more if the PTI Acts was amended to enable the institute have access to more funding.
He said that the ministry had given PTI mandates in different areas such as research, use of local materials in crude oil production, gas flaring commercialisation and among others.
“To this end, PTI evolve in line with it’s mandates of providing competent technological manpower through quality training and research for the petroleum and allied industries,” he said.
The advised the institute to embrace the contemporary new ways and methods in the delivery on its mandates following the global rapid changes in technology.
Sylva also advised the institute to liaise with the different relevant parastatals agencies of the government as well as local and international oil companies for the continued upgrade of relevant training curricular.
He said that the move would be in the best interest of the institute “going forward”.
Sylva congratulated the graduands and assured them that there were opportunities in the oil and gas industry.
“These skills you acquired will be pivotal in actualising the ever evolving goals in the oil and gas industry. I am saying this confidently because the world still rely largely on hydrocarbon and new petroleum,” Sylva said.
Earlier, Dr Henry Adimula, the Principal and Chief Executive Officer of PTI, said that a total of 1,156 graduands would received the diplomas and certificates for 20220/2021 academic session.
“Out of this figure, 659 will be awarded National Diploma and 501 will be awarded Higher National Diploma, while six graduands will receive the PTI General Welding Certificates.
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“I am delighted to inform you that out of these number, 112 students graduated with distinctions while 380 graduated with upper credit grades,” he said.
Adimula said that the PTI’s vision and mission anchored on competence and capacity had distinguished the institute as a Centre of Excellence for the human capacity development in the operations of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and beyond.
He, however, appealed to the National Assembly and major stakeholders in the oil and gas to support the amendment of the PTI Act.
According to him, the development would enable the oil and gas institute to perform her duty effectively in line with the global trend in the oil and gas and allied industries.
The principal said that other challenges confronting the Institute included, but not limited to training and retraining of the institute’s personnel vis-a-vis the cost of the training, locally and internationally
“The infrastructure of the institute is presently overstretched and need refurbishment, innovation and complete replacement of others,” he said.
Adimula congratulated the graduands and assured them that the training had prepared them for the opportunities that were available not only in the oil and gas and allied industries but in the renewable new and cleaner sources of energy.
One of the graduands, Miss Hope Oseh thanked God for the successful completion of her National Diploma programme.
Highlights of the ceremony was the presentation of awards to distinguished individuals including the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom, Dr Emmanuel Sideso Abe 1.
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