The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has commenced screening and interviews of over 746 candidates shortlisted for MSc and PhD under the PTDF 2026/2027 Overseas Scholarship Scheme (OSS) in Rivers State, the South-South zonal centre.
The exercise which began on April 7, ending on April 17, 2026, took place concurrently across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria with various centres at Abuja (North-central), Bauchi (North-East), Kaduna (North-West), Enugu (South-East), Oyo (South-West) and Rivers (South-South).
Speaking during the screening of the MSc candidates Thursday, at the PTDF Centre for Skills Development & Training, Airport Road, Igwuruta Port Harcourt, a Deputy Manager at PTDF and Team Lead, Port Harcourt Centre, Peter Egheneji said “We are having 503 candidates for Master’s Degree and 243 for Ph.D. programs”.
Egheneji who explained that part of the mandate of the PTDF is to provide scholarship and bursaries for the development of the oil and gas industry, said the programme tends to provide support in form of scholarships for Nigeria’s that qualify in the oil and gas industry.
He revealed the criteria used to shortlist the applicants include; their grades at the O’level, first degrees and their proposals. “So, we want to give the best opportunity to go for the scholarship,” he said.
One of the panelists at the interview and screening exercise, Prof. Godwin Chukwu, an affiliate of the University of Port Harcourt Emerald Energy, stated that PTDF is adding value to the nation’s oil and gas industry as most beneficiaries of the scholarship have become assets for the country.
He said the exercise commenced on Tuesday for those applying for Master’s Degree. “We look at what the student has done at the undergraduate, how the student can interface that particular background and knowledge to doing a Masters in an area that will be beneficial in the oil and gas operations in Nigeria”.
Prof. Chukwu who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Toncia Energy Consulting, Abuja, stated that “Our job starts with reviewing what we see and recommending to PTDF, and PTDF will take it up from there. Then it’s left for PTDF to decide on what they want. But our recommendation should be something that should guide them in their final decision.
“You will be surprised that we have some people that are coming from the background of political science, some people coming from the background of Law, and you will be asking, what are they coming here to do? These people did very, very well in the process”.
Other panelists sighted during the screening were Prof. Tebekeme Koko of the Niger Delta University, Bayelsa, and Dr. Garba Malumfashi, Senior Fellow with National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State.
Some of the candidates that spoke with journalists after their screening, lauded PTDF for what they described as “smooth application process”, adding that there were no issues of uploading their documents during the process.
Ifeoluwa Ajetunmo, who was at the centre for Masters scholarship interview with focus on Engineering Management for Process Sustenance, said “I am going to apply everything that I Iearnt to addressing the gaps to host I have seen in the oil and gas industry”.
“I currently work in an E & P company and I have noticed that there are issues that at times when operations fail it’s not because the equipment is failing, or technical incompetence but because there is poor communication and a lot of things that can be avoided.”
On his part, Edet John Uko, Masters on Environmental Engineering, said “Relatively looking at the current situation in Nigeria there is need for us to have some global ideas on how other countries tend to tackle and mitigate environmental issues in their own countries.
“Gaining such ideas and relatively going abroad to learn more about my field of study, there is no doubt I need to study so that I will be able to relatively solve the real problems such as the waste management and most importantly the issues of oil exploration, spillage and vandalisation”, Uko added.
Blessing Ibunge
