Nigeria's Petroleum Training Development Fund (PTDF) is beginning to phase out its Overseas Scholarship Scheme (OSS) as it strives to train more oil and gas industry workers domestically.

Vanguard reports that it is phasing out the Master's degree component of the scheme following the establishment of several domestic training programmes which will begin next month as the new academic year begins.

To date, 1,800 Master's students and 250 doctoral students have been trained at universities in the UK, but the PTDF hopes to have domesticated all petroleum training operations within three years.

Muttaqha Rabe Darma, the executive secretary of the fund, said that 16 of the 22 doctoral students completing their studies overseas this year will return to teach at university level in Nigeria.

The domestication programme is being undertaken in line with targets incorporated into law in the Local Content Act, which was passed earlier this year by the country's president Goodluck Jonathan.

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