Oil, Gas Projects: Experts Warn Of Manpower, Infrastructure Shortages

Industry leaders, regulators and academics warned that Nigeria’s workforce and the training systems designed to prepare it were not yet ready for the anticipated wave of major oil and gas investments, with a growing pipeline of projects targeting Final Investment Decision (FID).

They attributed the situation largely to more than a decade of stalled investment, which they said had weakened Nigeria’s oil and gas talent pipeline and left a generation of graduates without adequate exposure to industry operations.

The concerns were raised during a panel session titled: “Setting the Agenda – Local Content & Human Capital under PIA 2021 & NOGICD,” held on the second day of the OGTAN Human Capital Development Conference and Expo in Warri, Delta State.

The stakeholders repeatedly identified a structural gap between academic qualifications and practical competence, saying certificates were increasingly being awarded without corresponding skills, while classroom instruction was not sufficiently supported by field exposure.

They also expressed concern that skilled Nigerian professionals were increasingly migrating to other countries in search of better opportunities, making it difficult for the domestic industry to replace experienced personnel at the pace required.

The concerns come against the backdrop of renewed investment activity in Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas sector.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) recently stated that it expects 22 major offshore oil and gas projects to begin between now and 2030, with an estimated investment potential of between $30 billion and $50 billion.

With the anticipated projects expected to create significant demand for engineers, technicians, project managers and other specialised professionals, the experts said Nigeria must urgently strengthen its human capital development system and supporting infrastructure.

Speaking on “The State of HCD in Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Industry,” the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Ogbe, represented on the panel by the Director, Capacity Building Directorate, Engr. Abayomi Bamidele, acknowledged that the industry had gone through a difficult period characterised by a prolonged absence of major Final Investment Decisions.

Ogbe said the lack of new projects had constrained opportunities for local content and human capital development.

According to him, Nigeria had effectively lost nearly 15 years of investment, a period long enough for an entire generation of Nigerian graduates to pass through universities without adequate exposure to the oil and gas industry.

He said the situation had created a major challenge at a time when investment activity was beginning to return.

Ogbe noted that renewed optimism in the sector, driven partly by policies and executive orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, had placed human capital development at the centre of preparations for the next phase of industry growth.

He said the NCDMB had been building capacity over the years and had identified the 10 skill sets considered most important to the industry.

According to him, feedback from the sector showed that production and maintenance, as well as control and automation, were among the areas recording the highest demand.

He said the skills were particularly important for graduates seeking to enter the industry as new projects come on stream.

However, Ogbe raised concerns about the quality of training being delivered in some parts of the sector.

He said feedback received by the Board indicated dissatisfaction with the quality of skills being developed, with some service providers also expressing concern that trainees were completing programmes primarily to obtain certificates rather than acquire the competence required to perform actual jobs.

He said the industry needed to move away from a system where certification was treated as proof of competence and instead focus on whether trainees could effectively perform assigned tasks.

Ogbe also highlighted the need for proper monitoring of human capital development funds.

He said the NCDMB was developing a work plan around implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act and was working with NUIMS, the NNPC/NAPIMS Joint Venture, to strengthen monitoring and evaluation.

He disclosed that OGTAN had about 400 members but fewer than five per cent currently met the required benchmark.

According to him, compliance reviews had also shown that some operators were not undertaking full and genuine compliance with human capital development requirements, but were instead engaging in token activities.

He said the Board would intensify monitoring to ensure that training funds were properly utilised and that programmes delivered measurable value.

Ogbe also raised concerns about abuses in training programmes, citing cases where individuals attempted to benefit from more than one government-supported programme.

He said some trainees had been found attempting to combine participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme with the collection of training allowances.

He said the use of National Identification Number (NIN) verification would help the Board identify and close such loopholes.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of ND Western, Mr. Olanrewaju Kalejaiye, said human capital development was often misunderstood in the oil and gas industry.

He noted that some stakeholders viewed HCD mainly as a compliance requirement, while others treated it simply as training.

He argued that HCD was much broader and should be regarded as a critical determinant of the industry’s ability to safely produce hydrocarbons and deliver value to Nigeria.

According to him, the NOGICD Act had contributed to increased local participation in the industry, resulting in more Nigerian involvement in engineering design, a stronger local supply chain and a deeper pool of technical talent.

He said there was significant opportunity ahead, but warned that the industry was changing faster than the talent development system could keep pace.

Kalejaiye said effective human capital development must be directly connected to business outcomes.

He explained that training should translate into improved safety, greater reliability, better cost performance and increased production.

He also stressed that training should not be limited to classrooms.

According to him, workers and graduates need practical field exposure and should be given opportunities to work in different operational environments early in their careers.

He further emphasised the importance of developing middle management, describing middle managers as the people who translate corporate strategy into practical results.

Kalejaiye called for greater collaboration among international oil companies, indigenous producers, regulators, training providers and academic institutions.

He said local content would be stronger if the industry operated as a community rather than as separate organisations pursuing individual interests.

He also urged operators to take direct responsibility for human capital development instead of leaving it entirely to their human resources departments.

According to him, discipline heads within operating companies must take ownership of developing the skills required in their respective areas.

Kalejaiye said the industry had made progress but needed a more practical and collaborative approach to prepare for the next phase of growth.

He recalled that major oil and gas projects in the past had deliberately developed the workforce required to execute them.

He, therefore, called for policies that would encourage operators to train beyond their immediate workforce requirements and contribute to the development of a wider industry talent pool.

He noted that the absence of major new projects had also left operators dealing with brownfield assets, some of which were up to 60 years old.

Such assets, he said, presented different technical and operational challenges and further demonstrated the importance of collaboration.

Kalejaiye also highlighted the experience of indigenous companies such as ND Western, which took over assets previously operated with extensive technical support from international oil companies.

According to him, indigenous operators did not always inherit the full technical support structures that previously existed, creating gaps in technical capability.

He said those gaps could be addressed through collaboration with OGTAN and universities to develop technical expertise locally.

He also stressed that workforce safety must remain a central component of human capital development.

The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr. Afeez Oluwatoyin Ogun, described the OGTAN HCD Conference as a game-changing event and used the opportunity to highlight the demographic pressures facing Nigeria’s labour market.

Ogun said Nigeria had a population of about 138 million people, with roughly half being young people, while the country’s fertility rate stood at around 4.5.

He said the demographic trend meant Nigeria would continue to produce large numbers of graduates every year, making skills development and job creation increasingly important.

He argued that competence should be defined by the ability to perform a job rather than possession of a certificate.

Ogun also noted that skilled labour naturally moved towards places where it was better rewarded and appreciated.

He said the nature of work was changing rapidly, with remote work making it possible for skilled professionals to work across borders without physically relocating.

He raised concern over the migration of Nigerian workers trained through NCDMB programmes, saying many competent personnel were “japa-ing” in search of opportunities elsewhere.

He said Nigeria could not realistically prevent the movement of skilled workers, particularly in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

According to him, Nigeria therefore needed to rethink local content and begin considering it from a regional perspective.

He said “local” was increasingly becoming global, as Nigerian companies and professionals were already operating in several African countries.

Ogun said Nigeria was struggling to find enough digital oilfield specialists, cybersecurity professionals and workers capable of managing complex projects.

He warned that the country was finding it difficult to replace some of the experienced professionals leaving the industry and the country.

He therefore advocated a stronger emphasis on entrepreneurship and apprenticeship, including the establishment of apprenticeship centres where skilled graduates could receive additional practical training and develop sustainable careers.

He cited the Mercedes-Benz apprenticeship model as an example of how structured technical training could be used to build a strong workforce.

Ogun also urged Nigeria to change its perception of technical careers.

He said traditional white-collar professions could no longer be treated as the only pathway to success, stressing that skilled technicians could build equally successful careers.

He argued that Nigeria should design its training programmes not only for the domestic market but for Africa as a whole.

He noted that Nigerian professionals were already working in about 14 African countries and argued that Nigerian competence tended to follow Nigerian capital wherever it was invested.

Ogun said a country that invests in skills does not simply create workers but builds industries and secures prosperity for future generations.

He described the NCDMB as a gatekeeper and referee rather than a coach, adding that the Board’s role should be to ensure that industry participants comply with established standards.

He also noted that oil and gas currently contributes only about four per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.

He therefore advocated expanding the concept of local content beyond oil and gas to other sectors, including telecommunications.

Ogun proposed that the NCDMB could eventually be renamed and its enabling law amended to reflect a broader national local-content strategy that cuts across sectors of the economy.

The pioneer and founding Chairman of OGTAN and founder and Managing Consultant of Laser Engineering and Resources Consultants Limited, Prof. Mike Onyekonwu, said Nigerian graduates had the intelligence and potential required to support the oil and gas industry.

He argued that Nigeria did not necessarily need to import experienced foreign engineers because much of the required talent had already been produced by Nigerian universities.

According to him, the major problem was insufficient exposure to quality systems, digital technologies and practical industry requirements.

Onyekonwu said universities had also failed to adequately teach graduates commercial thinking and financial management.

He argued that graduates needed to understand how businesses operate and how to manage money because companies ultimately exist to create economic value.

The academic, who said he had spent 42 years in the industry before retiring while continuing to work as a consultant, disclosed that he had employed about 120 graduates through his consulting practice.

He said about 90 per cent of those employees were engineers trained by Nigerian universities.

Onyekonwu therefore called for a fundamental change in the way students were trained.

He described higher institutions as gateways that students must pass through and argued that stakeholders needed to influence what happens within those institutions to ensure graduates emerged better prepared for the workplace.

He recommended greater investment in digital skills at the university level, with the objective of ensuring that up to 70 per cent of graduates were genuinely job-ready by the time they completed their studies.

He called for better funding of university projects, stressing that quality outcomes depended on genuine investment in education and training.

Onyekonwu also urged stakeholders to address disruptions caused by strikes in the university system, saying prolonged interruptions affected the skills pipeline.

On curriculum development, he argued that facilities should not be allowed to prevent universities from updating their programmes.

He proposed that engineering students should receive significant information technology exposure early in their studies, while practical on-the-job training should become a central part of their development.

He called for improvements in industrial training programmes to expose petroleum scientists, engineers and other students to real-world industry operations.

According to him, students on industrial training were often left without adequate supervision, reducing the value of the programme.

He stressed that on-the-job training was essential because it exposed students to real projects and helped them understand how theoretical knowledge was applied.

However, he noted that students and researchers often lacked access to industry data needed for research because companies were reluctant to release such information.

He called for the establishment of a proper industry data repository that could support university education and research.

Onyekonwu also advocated a “train the trainers” programme to ensure university lecturers were regularly retrained as industry skills and technologies evolved.

He said the responsibility should not be left entirely to university authorities and called on government to deliberately invest in the capacity development of lecturers.

He further urged the NCDMB to strengthen its monitoring capacity by employing more professionals who could properly assess the implementation of projects and training programmes.

He emphasised the importance of reliable industry data and used the example of Oloibiri, where accurate information would be needed to determine the status of oil reserves and production.

Onyekonwu also described apprenticeship, both at university and artisan levels, as a critical part of the solution to Nigeria’s oil and gas skills challenge.

He noted that companies such as Schlumberger had historically trained a significant number of members of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), while Shell had also contributed to the development of several indigenous operators.

He, however, observed that not all companies were currently playing the same role and called for greater openness across the industry to structured on-the-job training and apprenticeship opportunities.

The discussions underscored the growing gap between Nigeria’s expected oil and gas investment pipeline and the country’s existing capacity to provide the skilled workforce and infrastructure required to execute the projects.

With 22 major offshore projects expected between now and 2030 and potential investments estimated at $30 billion to $50 billion, the stakeholders said Nigeria must urgently strengthen human capital development, practical training, technical infrastructure, industry-academia collaboration and apprenticeship systems.

They warned that without such measures, the country risks attracting major investments while lacking the domestic capacity to fully participate in and benefit from the projects expected to drive the next phase of growth in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.