Newly established Centre for Inland Basins Studies to strengthen ABU’s leading role in research – ABU Vice-Chancellor

The Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Prof. Kabiru Bala, says the establishment of Centre for Inland Basins Studies (CIBS) at the premier institution recently by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is an opportunity for the University to maintain its leading role in research and training. Prof. Bala disclosed this when he declared open a five-day National Workshop on Sequence Stratigraphy organized by the Centre at the University.

The workshop, ‘Application of Sequence Stratigraphy to Petroleum Exploration: A Case Study of Sokoto Basin, was sponsored by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). It began at Centre of Economics and Finance, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria on Monday, 21st August, 2023.

“The Centre is an opportunity for ABU to maintain its leading role in research and training; and we are thankful to NNPCL for the opportunity to realise our potential as one of the most reputable universities in the area of hydrocarbon research in the world”, he said. The Vice-Chancellor also said that with two existing professorial chairs at the institution’s Faculty of Engineering funded by Shell Petroleum and Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), the University would reassert itself as a leading player in the area of geoscience and engineering solutions to meet the petroleum industry demands.

In his remarks, the Director, Centre for Inland Basins Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Prof. Umar Adamu Danbatta, explained that NNPCL established the Centre within the famework of its Corporate Social Responsibility.

He said that the Centre would allow students to enroll in any of the following areas: Specialised Certificate, National Diploma, Postgraduate Courses and Programmes in conjunction with relevant Departments and Units across the University and its partner institutions.

Danbatta also said that the training and research at the Centre would reflect current best practices within the petroleum industry.

Giving an insight into the workshop, which he said, was the first to be organised by the Centre since it came into existence, Prof. Danbatta described the workshop as timely following renewed interest in expanding petroleum exploration to frontier basins in Nigeria due to significant hydrocarbon prospectivity.

He further explained that the aim of the train-the-trainer workshop was to review and highlight the importance of sequence stratigraphic analysis as a powerful tool for predicting the spatial and temporal distribution of petroleum systems and plays at both exploration and reservoir scales.

Also speaking, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Malam Mele Kolo Kyari, said that the oil company invested in numerous educational programmes and scholarships to promote access to quality education and skills development.

This, according to him, included providing scholarships to students at various academic levels, supporting educational infrastructure, and promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education through annual national science quiz competition.

The NNPCL boss, who was represented by the Dean, Faculty of Physical Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Prof. Musa I. Jaro, also explained that the oil company contributed to infrastructure development in the education sector in various ways.

“It supports the building of research centres, schools, classrooms, libraries, rehabilitation of roads, as well as invests in programmes that provide training and capacity building for lecturers/teachers and administrators in educational institutions”, he said.

……………………..

Public Affairs Directorate,

Office of the Vice-Chancellor,

Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria