SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Niger­ian na­tion­als will ben­e­fit when the Na­tion­al En­er­gy Skills Cen­tre (NESC) opens its drilling in­sti­tute in Au­gust at its cam­pus in Ste Madeleine. The an­nounce­ment was made on Wednes­day by Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Fazal Karim dur­ing the grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny of 57 Niger­ian na­tion­als who were trained at the NESC cam­pus in Point Lisas. Karim said the cam­pus was part of the En­er­gy In­sti­tute launched by his min­istry in May 2012. He said un­der an agree­ment be­tween NESC, Pet­roskills of the Unit­ed States and Gi­ta Al­lied Ser­vices of Nige­ria, 70 Niger­ian na­tion­als would ben­e­fit from the train­ing which will be of­fered to sup­port the up­stream oil and gas sec­tor.

He said the NESC would al­so be used as a pro­to­type for train­ing in­sti­tu­tions in oth­er African na­tions such as Ghana, An­go­la and Tan­za­nia. The cost of the train­ing and re­lat­ed ser­vices amount­ed to $6 mil­lion and was paid for by the Gov­ern­ment of Nige­ria. Niger­ian High Com­mis­sion­er Musa Jen said he was pleased with the train­ing at the NESC. He said he looked for­ward to in­creas­ing ties with T&T and Nige­ria. Jen said of­fi­cials from the Niger­ian Gov­ern­ment would be in T&T on Au­gust 1 for a two-day vis­it