The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was the centre of attraction at the Nigerian Society of Engineers’ (NSE) fellowship award ceremony as the Corporation bagged Special Recognition Award including seven of its members of staff.
While NNPC bagged the NSE Special Recognition Award for its robust contributions to the development of engineering profession in the country, its Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Engr. Adokiye Tombomieye, was conferred with the prestigious Fellowship award.
NSE President, Engr. Babagana Mohammed, who presented the award to NNPC Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, said the NNPC was the backbone to the country’s visible development and the engineering profession.
Mohammed said NNPC had remained committed to offering free training to young engineers through the National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO) with a view to assisting and providing manpower requirement in the oil and gas industry.
The NSE boss, however, urged the awardees to keep flying the flag of the NSE in their various endeavours positively, stressing that they were duty-bound to serve as role models to others in the society.
However, The NNPC GMD, who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Ventures and Business Development, Engr. Adeyemi Adetunji, said NNPC would continue to play a major role in growing the engineering profession, which he described as critical to the success of the Corporation.
He said NNPC would remain focus on key projects such as Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline and refineries rehabilitation to ensure that they were delivered on time within budget and to specifications.
Adetunji said: “This award is in recognition of NNPC’s contributions to the nation’s development and its efforts and drive to improve engineering profession in Nigeria.
“NNPC as a responsible national oil company will continue to focus on key projects that will deliver optimal value to Nigerians.”
Adetunji was echoed by Tombomieye, who said the award would spur him to bring his professional expertise to bear on his job by adding value to the Upstream business of the Corporation for the good of the country.
Also speaking at the event, Managing Director of NETCO, Engr. Usman Baba, said the recognition would spur the company to continue to build capacity of young engineers in the country and prepare them for the oil and gas industry.
Baba said: “As the NSE President mentioned, NETCO trains young Nigerian Engineers, as the only indigenous engineering company in the face of this dangerous situation where other companies do not want to train and nobody wants to employ non-experienced staff.
“So, NETCO has taken the responsibility of training them with pay, so that they can be marketable in the industry. This is one of our major contributions to the industry. As at today, we have brought in about 35 new young graduates of the engineering profession to be trained for the market.”
Meanwhile,two other NNPC staff who were conferred with the award, Engr. Sagiru Adamu and Engr. Bassey Essiet, described the fellowship award as a dream come true.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Board of Fellows of the NSE, Engr. Felix Atume, congratulated Tombomieye and other Engineers on the fellowship award, urging them to uphold the ethics of the engineering profession for upcoming engineers to emulate.
Highpoint of the occasion was the presentation of the awards by GMD of NNPC, Mallam Kyari, to the Minister of Power, Engr. Saleh Mamman, Director of Department of Petroleum Resources, Engr. Sarki Muktar and to the COO, Upstream of NNPC, Engr. Tombomieye.
A total of 120 Engineers were conferred with the fellowship awards at the 16th edition of the NSE award and lecture series, with eight others being conferred with their awards virtually.
