Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, Nigeria: The Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), was established on March 27, 2007 by a special Presidential directive. The establishment was subsequently signed into law in October 2017 by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigerian. It is the first Petroleum University in Africa and the sixth of its kind in the World. As a premier institution of Oil and Gas in Africa, FUPRE has the mandate to provide world class education, training, research, consultancy and extension services for the petroleum and allied sectors.
FUPRE has well established academic faculty and multilateral collaborations within Nigeria and overseas. As a specialised University with the core mandate of high level manpower training and capacity building in support of the energy, oil and gas industrial sector, FUPRE has over 27 well established international and local linkages, spread across 4 continents.
FUPRE has staff with well-developed technical and intellectual capacity, on Laser micromachining, Laser cutting, Laser Process mathematic modelling, Laser Cleaning and Laser-Particle-Lens-Array surface processing. Also, inbuilt capacity in materials characterisation of laser processed surfaces is being expanded with collaboration with the Engineering Materials Development Institute, Akure (Nigeria) and the Laser Processing Research Centre (LPRC), University of Manchester, United Kingdom. The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) are enabling capacity building initiative with FUPRE to train Masters and PhD level personnel to man laser enabled manufacturing technology to provide products and services for the mining, energy, oil and gas industrial sectors in Nigeria. SHELL Light Weight Engine Development project has been established at FUPRE, this will benefit from advanced manufacturing technology provided by ELbM project. To this end, industrial uptake of laser manufacturing products will be promoted in the Nigerian manufacturing sub-sector.
The Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE) in collaboration with Brunel University London, as U.K. partner, has a contract (Nov. 2018 – Nov. 2020) with the Royal Academy of Engineering, United Kingdom via a grant award (amounting to £140,000 GBP) to execute a National project titled ”Biogas for sustainable Energy and Off-Grid Power” under the Higher Education Partnership for Sub-Saharan Africa (HESS-SSA) Scheme. FUPRE as a ‘Hub’ University is in collaboration with The University of Abuja (UniAbuja), Brunel University, London, U.K. and other designated ‘Spoke institutions’ (universities and corporate bodies), to develop and sustain capacity towards successful implementation of the project: “Biogas for Sustainable Energy and Off-Grid Power“. Project outcomes include joint research, co-supervision of student’s projects and development of local content in engineering and technology for biogas resources, industry engagement, and curriculum development. Project was funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering UK in conjunction with the Anglo American Group Foundation and Global Challenges Research Fund – [Ref: HEPSSA2\71]. Dr. Omonigho B. Otanocha is grant holder and coordinator of the FUPRE – HEP-SSA Project. Furthermore, FUPRE has confirmed participation at the Global Grand Challenges Summit 2019 (16-18 September 2019, London) with theme as “Engineering in an unpredictable world”, and the Royal Academy of Engineering’s annual international engineering education conference (26 and 27 November 2019, London) tagged “Problem-based learning: teaching engineers to tackle the SDGs”, with Dr. O. B. Otanocha as a sponsored representative by the organisers.