Oil & Gas: 5,000 applicants jostle for PTDF’s oversea scholarships

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By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

The Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, has begun the interview of 5,000 applicants shortlisted for its 2023 oversea’s postgraduate scholarship scheme.

The applicants are jostling for placements in the programme that would see them sent to universities in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Malaysia and China for masters and doctorate programmes in oil and gas related courses.

Speaking at the commencement of the selection interview in Abuja, Head, PTDF scholarship scheme, Bolanle Kehinde-Abiola, disclosed the interviews will be conducted across designated centres in the six geo-political zones in the country.

She explained the scholarships will be awarded to the three best applicants from each state with an additional slot for oil and gas producing states.

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We have over five thousand candidates that we have shortlisted to partake in the exercise which is going on nationwide in the six geo political zones of the country.

“The first criterion is that you must be a Nigerian and for the masters scholarship you must be a student of any of the oil and gas fields like engineering, geology, computing, environmental sciences and management. You must have a minimum of 2.1 in any of these fields for you to qualify.

“The application windows opened at the end of the year and then candidates were called to apply. PTDF is an agency of government that is charged for the capacity building for the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

“The essence of the programme is to equip Nigerians with the needed skills to manage operations in the oil and gas industry”, she added.

She explained that the number of candidates the fund sponsors depends on the budget for the year, stating that “for the PhD we take two candidates (from each state) for the United Kingdom collaboration and two for the other countries”.