By Waziri Isa Adam
A total of 60 petroleum scientists drawn from 30 Nigerian universities have been nominated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to attend a five-day sequence stratigraphy workshop scheduled to hold at Centre for Inland Basins Studies (CIBS), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 20th to 24th August, 2023.
Specifically, the NNPCL -sponsored short hands-on train-the-trainer (TTT) workshop is targeted at geologists, scientists, reservoir engineers, and other professionals.
The Centre, built and commissioned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) in March last year, is expected to share at the training workshop some reflections on the benefits of the application of sequence stratigraphic techniques (SST) for the delimitation of petroleum systems of inland sedimentary basins, with special focus on Sokoto basin.
The workshop, “Application of Sequence Stratigraphy to Petroleum Exploration: A Case Study of the Sokoto Basin”, has 60 participants drawn from 30 universities across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, and it is to hold at CBN Centre for Economics and Finance, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
All the participants are academic staff mainly from Departments of Geology, Geophysics, Physics, and other related fields in their respective universities.
The participating universities from the north east are University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Gombe State University, Gombe; Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola; and Nigerian Army University, Biu.
Those from the south east are University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki; and Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu.
Others are those from the south south, which include Delta State University, Abraka; University of Calabar, Calabar; University of Benin, Benin; Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State; University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt; and Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun.
The ones from the south west are University of Ibadan, Ibadan; University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos; and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
They also include universities from the north central zone that are Federal University of Technology, Minna; Nasarawa State University, Keffi; Federal University Lokoja, Lokoja; and University of Jos, Jos.
The universities participating from the north west are Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto; Federal University, Gusau; Federal University, Birnin Kebbi; and Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology, Wudil, Kano.
Significantly, sequence stratigraphy is a branch of stratigraphy that deals with the order, or sequence, in which depositionally related stratal successions (time-rock) units were laid.
It has been extensively used by the academia and industry as a valuable tool in basin analysis and modelling of the several parameters that govern sedimentation, and frontier exploration of hydrocarbons in the inland basins.
The workshop aims to help participants gain a thorough understanding of the concepts and practical application of sequence stratigraphy to hydrocarbons exploration – using the Sokoto basin as a case study.
The five-day course combines classroom lectures with practical exercise that illustrates the application of sequence stratigraphy as a tool for hydrocarbon exploration.
In general, the workshop will greatly help the participants in utilizing sequence stratigraphy as a predictive tool in identifying hydrocarbons plays, to improve the estimation of play and prospect risk in Nigeria’s inland sedimentary basins that consist of South-eastern sector of Lake Chad basin, the Lower, Middle, and Upper Benue Trough, Anambra basin, the Mid-Niger (Bida) basin, and the Sokoto basin.
Expectedly, the workshop is to be declared open by the Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Prof. Kabiru Bala, with the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Koko Kyari, as the Special Guest of Honour.
The Director, Centre for Inland Basins Studies (CIBS), Prof. Umar Adamu Danbatta, who released the itinerary of the five-day workshop, assured that all was set for the event.