Tejiri Ebikeme

CHEVRON Nigeria Limited (CNL), operator of the NNPC/Chevron Joint Venture is sponsoring qualified young Nigerians to a training course on Remotely  Operated Vehicle ( ROV) overseas as part of its efforts to assist Nigeria acquire necessary manpower in the deep water sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

A remotely operated vehicle, also known as an underwater robot, is commonly used in deepwater operations for offshore hydrocarbon extraction.

Five Nigerians – nominated by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) under the Nigerian Content Human Capacity Development Initiative (NCHCDI) are to benefit from the seven to thirteen week ROV training initiative. Two of them -Obaro Onotaniyohwo Pereke and Tunbi Oluwakayode recently left Nigeria for Scotland to commence the training.

At their send forth ceremony, Mr. Mike Tierney, CNL Escravos-Gas-to-Liquid (EGTL) Integration and Completions Manager, noted that the sponsorship of the Nigerians for the ROV training was in line with Chevron’s human and business capacity development strategy. “ROV operations are required for deepwater operations and are highly specialized and critical to the development of the oil and gas sector. It is our desire that Nigerians acquire the competence to increase their successful participation in the oil and gas business”, he stated.

Similarly, Raymond Wilcox, CNL’s Nigerian Content Development General Manager explained; “The intention of the program is to enhance the competence of Nigerians in line with CNL’s commitment to the Federal Government’s Nigerian Content development program.”

The NCDMB representative at the send forth ceremony, Engineer Paul Zuhumben, congratulated both trainees for the opportunity they had been given and implored them to develop the right attitude and apply their knowledge of diversity effectively while in Scotland. He commended Chevron for taking the decision to “invest in these young Nigerians” and   encouraged the duo to perform well so that Chevron would be encouraged to sponsor more young Nigerians to the program.

CNL has been  a leading promoter of the Nigerian Content initiative in the Oil and Gas industry since the 1990s. The company has implemented strategies for training, capacity building and employment of Nigerians and provided contracts and procurement opportunities to help create local jobs and technology transfer through local patronage, work scope reservation, fostering of business partnerships and domiciliation of work. The current training initiative is geared towards empowering more Nigerians to acquire skills that will enable them take on responsibilities that will otherwise be given to expatriate personnel across the industry.

The Company also has a robust scholarship program aimed at producing necessary manpower for the country.  Over 11,000 students including the blind are benefiting from the NNPC/Chevron Scholarship and Agbami Medical and Engineering Professional Scholarship awards. Chev­ron also donates new schools, infrastructure and equipment.  In addition, the Discovery Channel Global Education Program to less privileged schools in Nigeria was introduced to bridge identified gaps in public schools.