Nigeria's Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has announced further changes to its funding of students developing oil and gas industry-related skills overseas.

Under the new initiative, the PTDF will no longer maintain the doctorate degree component of its Overseas Scholarship Scheme, with a University Lecturers' Enhancement Programme to take its place.

According to the body's executive secretary Alhaji Kabir Abdulfatah Mohammed, the move comes as the PTDF looks to gain maximum benefits from its funding, arguing that the advantages to the industry of the old training scheme were not justifying the high cost.

"The discontinuance of the doctorate degree component of the scholarship scheme of the fund became necessary after a review of the entire scholarship programme of the fund revealed that the Ph.D category of scholars are no longer required by the oil and gas industry in Nigeria," he told the country's Punch newspaper.

Under the new programme, which will work alongside the recently-launched Local Scholarship Scheme, more funding will be given to six universities across Nigeria so as to allow them to offer world-class training aimed at benefiting the national oil and gas industry in the long-run.