Fupre and the energy future

In the early days of this column, I suggested that Petroleum Training Institute (P.T.I.), in Delta State, be transformed into an energy think tank—with university status and a cosmic ray research component.

My suggestion was, of course, ignored. As far as I am aware, P.T.I. is still training low-level employees for foreign oil companies.

What brings this episode to mind, is a document I obtained recently, entitled “A Bill For An Act To Establish The Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Efffurun, etc…”

Former Senator Ighoyota Amori, Delta Central, introduced the bill, which is currently making its way through the legislative labyrinth in Abuja—under the sponsorship of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

Actually, the university (bearing the acronym, “FUPRE”) has been operating for quite some time—but without the legislative backing it needs and deserves.

Yet in spite of FUPRE’s legal status—or lack thereof—and its perennial financial crisis, the university has produced four graduating classes of Science students and two sets of Engineers.

It has also earned plaudits for innovative research, in petroleum refining and engineering: Having built a mini-refinery that works and won a global competition for vehicle design in South Africa.

Let me concede, before going further, that FUPRE is not an “energy think tank”. Nor is “cosmic rays” on its research agenda—as much as I’d like to report to the contrary.

Nevertheless, I’m a firm believer in “evolution,” not just as a biological imperative but also as the driver of social progress. Indeed, the rule in nature generally, is that one thing grows out of another.

Our hot yellow-looking star (it’s really white), for example, grew out of a cloud of cold gas and silicate dust. Likewise, the life we cherish, resulted from the chemical interaction of four non-living elements.

Secondly, it is a truism in science that, in all developmental processes, quantity must precede quality. In other words, something must first be on the ground, before it can become what one wishes it to be.

This is what I often tell young people, about “secession”. Nigeria is a near-perfect territorial, social and economic unit. It thus has more potential, more possibility than any entity secessionists can create.

The same logic applies to social institutions—especially universities. Universities, like nation-states, are created with the future in mind, more so than the present.

According to Professor Akii Ibhadode, the Vice Chancellor at FUPRE, for instance, law stipulates that the site of a new institution consist of at least 100 hectares of land.

“Nobody is likely to put up a mammoth complex, all at once,” he surmised, “that would cover such a large area. Policy-makers were thinking about the future—making sure the university could grow”.

The research and instructional programmes of universities also evolve. FUPRE may eschew cosmic ray or other high-energy projects, for the time being. But it cannot do so forever.

The formal introduction of the International Hydrogen Economy last year, for example, marked the symbolic end of petroleum, as an energy source.

Even if the hydrogen economy falters, nuclear fusion and space-based solar power will sustain the energy revolution: So that in 30 to 40 years, nobody will buy oil or gas.

The upside, is that Nigeria has one of the world’s largest reserves of methane—the main source of commercial hydrogen.

As the energy revolution runs its course, the university will obviously need to retool, conceptually, and look beyond petroleum, to help secure Nigeria’s energy future

With adequate funding and legal backing, FUPRE will meet this strategic challenge— because it’s there, and it’s evolving.