Oil major Shell has invested in a new subsurface research centre in Nigeria to help boost the country’s further development in the oil and gas industry.
The company’s joint venture, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), made the investment in the University of Ibadan.
The centre has 15 fully-networked workstations, a high-end server complete with internet facilities and a standyby 45-Kva generator among other facilities.
Igo Weli, SPDC’s general manager, said:“The SPDC JV’s intervention to turn around the subsurface centre of the university is a careful choice to support the institution to deliver the next generation of technologies and skills that will help Nigeria to unlock more oil reserves.
“With all the modern facilities and promise of uninterrupted power supply, the centre has the capacity to showcase the potentials of oil and gas sector while attracting bright minds, and our hope is that students will make the best use of it.”
It is hoped the new subsurface centre will support new learning at the University of Ibadan and other institutions in southwestern Nigeria.
In 2012, the SPDC established a Centre of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Benin.
It is also completing work on another centre on Marine Hydrodynamic at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology.