Principal and Chief Executive of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State, Dr Henry Adebowale Adimula, had an interview with journalists to herald the 50th anniversary of the institute. EBENEZER ADUROKIYA, who was there, brings excerpts.
As an institute, what has been your contribution in ensuring that crude oil theft is reduced to its minimum level in the country?
First thing about crude oil is that [its theft] affects the environment. As an institute, we are training and also developing technology that will help the oil and gas industry. What we do as an institute is to develop the technology that can monitor our pipelines and distribution system. So that if there’s any breach of the pipeline system, it will quickly be detected and arrested. We are providing the solution that helps to monitor the pipeline system.
The area of environmental degradation is a lot more complex, because anytime there is a spill, it impacts negatively on the environment. If we are able to arrest [oil spillage], then we will solve that in one way. The issue is mainly lying on the illegal refining of stolen crude.
The Federal Government, through the office of the vice-president, came out with an initiative to have all these refineries put together and possibly integrate them into the mainstream refining in the country sometime last year. PTI was at that conference and it was one of the key stakeholders identified to work on these refining. Today, we have a committee that is building the refining capacity and developing the materials and technology to achieve that. If government will quickly come up with a policy to bring up all the refiners together, then PTI is ready because we have already perfected that.
Looking at the past 50 years, which achievement would you consider the most remarkable?
Achievement is tied to what the institute was established to do. PTI was established primarily to train Nigerians to take over the running of the oil and gas industry. We are proud to say that 100 per cent of that objective has been achieved here today. Because, most of the principal officers in the refineries we have in the country today, were trained here at the Petroleum Training Institute. That is our pride and, with that, we save the country from spending millions of dollar bringing in expatriates or training Nigerians outside the country.
We have also developed a lot in the area of research and development by developing solutions that can tackle environmental liquidation. We did not rest on our oars; we are achieving everyday and recently we started training divers at a level that no other institution is able to do in the country today.
What is PTI doing to develop equipment that can harness the flaring of gas in the Niger Delta?
The problem with global warming has to do with some of the by-products of the combustion of oil and gas and principally with oxide of carbons, nitrogen and all of that. The major culprit is carbon monoxide. One solution is to capture the carbon that is produced so that we reduce our carbon load. PTI has a research team that is working on carbon capture technology. Meaning that we are able to take some of these gases, that could cause havoc to human existence if released in the environment. That is why we also said that rather than totally jettisoning what we have, we can improve our technology so that the carbon that is burnt can be captured and used for other things.
What is the level of crime rate in the institution, especially cultism which was rife in the past?
Let me dispute your claim that PTI has been a hub for cultists; I am not aware of that in all the years that I have been here. Actually, PTI has been one of the safest places to send your children to come and learn, principally because when students come into the institute, they walk into an environment that is different from a typical Nigerian school.
We engage them right from the time of entering into the institute. We do that as a deliberate policy; the admission process has been very well monitored. We have our own examination because we select only the best. Where you have too many students that are not engaged, that is an environment that breeds cultism.
Our environment is such that we don’t do that and going back to our history, it is actually a training institute where the people that are coming already know the industry they would end up. So they are mindful of how they are going to behave and they behave very well.
We have noted that the state of protests, restiveness has reduced because we have developed mechanisms to listen more and to provide feedbacks and nip problems in the bud before they become more problems.
What is the relationship of institute with its host communities?
We enjoy a very cordial relationship with our hosts. We have three host communities, which are: Effurun, Osubi and Udu. I must say today that we are having a very wonderful relationship with all of these communities. There are several ways we have impacted positively on the host communities in line with the objective of the institution which is to train and develop communities. Severally, we have trained free of charge. We have trained several batches of youths on solar power and other skills. Sometime last year, we also trained some Urhobo youths from all the local communities here free of charge and empowered them. So, these are some of the things we do and we will continue to do more and cherish the relationship that we have.
I want you to throw more lights on the modular refinery project you earlier talked about.
We are building more on the modular refinery introduced by the former principal and advancing on the refinery. But let me also add that the institute is primarily a training and research organisation. So, a great focus of our development of modular refinery is on training and also research. I mentioned the artisanal refiners before; part of what we are using the refinery to do is not just to produce and sell, but to train skilled manpower for the industry and we have achieved in that area.
You have so many intellectual properties in PTI. How are you commercializing them?
One of the things we have done is to first of all look at the legal aspect and to create the unit to manage our intellectual properties. So, today, we have such unit that is interfacing with the Copyright Institute of Nigeria and we also have the research created to promote this. When we have discovered something that we can commercialize, the first thing is to register it. We are in the process of registering some of the skills. It takes a process; it takes a while and we will get there.
How consistent is funding by government?
Government has been doing its best in funding, but we realise that the funds may not be enough and adequate. So, one of the critical areas is funding and as an institute, we are looking at options on how government policies, especially on funding, can be changed to favour the institute to provide more so that we won’t have people going out of the country for training. We can do a lot of that in this country and that is actually the thing about local content.
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