Nigeria Needs Long-term Skills Plan for Midstream, Downstream, Says Waltersmith CEO

The managing director/chief executive officer of Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Oladapo Filani, has called for an industry-led, long-term plan to determine the skills Nigeria will need to run its midstream and downstream petroleum sector.

Filani, who was keynote speaker at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Journal Summit 2026, said the plan should be drawn up in partnership with the PTDF and should define the capabilities Nigerians will need over the next five to 10 years. The summit was themed “Private Sector Participation in Nigeria’s Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Sector: Prospects, Challenges and the Way Forward.”

He said the sector needs a change of approach. “We must shift from simply creating jobs to building a deep, industry-ready talent pipeline capable of operating increasingly complex assets safely and efficiently,” he said.

Filani said the shift was from training Nigerians for the sector to developing people who can safely, efficiently and commercially operate, maintain, manage and grow it. He said this would do more than produce qualified people. “We will also build Nigerian companies, Nigerian-owned technologies, infrastructure and institutions capable of competing globally,” he said.

He said the need was growing as Nigeria develops new refineries, gas processing facilities, pipelines and other energy infrastructure. The sector now needs engineers, project managers, process specialists and commercial professionals who can deliver complex projects and build the next generation of technical and industry leaders, he said. He said a deeper talent pool would also cut reliance on external expertise, help technology transfer, raise productivity and reduce operating risks.

Filani said the challenge for PTDF has changed since it was established under Act No. 25 of 1973. PTDF began as a desk in the Department of Natural Resources and became an independent agency in 2000. He said it has sponsored more than 15,639 scholars and supported more than 50,000 research projects, and that many of its beneficiaries now hold key positions in the petroleum sector, service companies and academia.

“The challenge is no longer simply to produce skilled Nigerians,” he said. He said the task now is to keep their expertise in the country, create opportunities to apply it, and turn knowledge into technology, businesses and economic value.

He proposed that PTDF and the private sector work together. PTDF, he said, can address human capital and technical capability constraints, while private investors deal with infrastructure and commercialisation. He said the partnership should link the talent PTDF develops to the projects industry is building, and tie research to current and emerging needs of the sector.

Filani said skills were one of three connected challenges facing the midstream and downstream sectors. The others were infrastructure deficits and reliability, and financing, commercial viability and investment uncertainty.

He said Nigeria still faces constraints in gas gathering and processing, pipelines, storage, terminals and distribution. Pipeline vandalism, theft and integrity problems disrupt supply, he said, while limited gas processing and evacuation infrastructure holds back gas monetisation. He acknowledged federal government investments in the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) and OB3 pipelines as important steps.

On financing, he said midstream and downstream projects are capital-intensive and need long investment horizons. The high cost of capital, limited long-term financing, foreign exchange exposure, and feedstock availability and pricing all affect their economics, he said.

He also said gas should no longer be treated mainly as a byproduct of oil production. It should serve as a platform for power, industry, refining, fertiliser, petrochemicals, CNG, LNG and gas-based manufacturing, he said. He urged operators to share pipelines, gas processing, storage, power generation and logistics, and said industrial parks could cut costs by bringing energy, manufacturing and supporting infrastructure together.

Filani said Waltersmith is following this approach, building its upstream resource base alongside infrastructure to gather and commercialise gas and connect it to end users. The company is also developing an industrial park with shared infrastructure and reliable power for manufacturing and energy-intensive businesses.

“Nigeria has abundant oil and gas resources. That is not in any doubt,” he said. “What we need now is a combination of capability, infrastructure, technology, and commercial activity to convert those resources into lasting economic value.”

He said government must provide the right policy environment, regulators must keep providing clarity and consistency, and financiers must back projects, while PTDF continues to build the people and expertise the sector needs.