Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is facing a major human-capacity challenge after annual investment in the sector plunged by about $22 billion between 2014 and 2023, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). The commission said investment fell from roughly $24 billion to just $2 billion during the period, representing a decline of more than 90 per cent and leaving the industry with a shrinking pool of experienced technical professionals.
NUPRC Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said the prolonged investment downturn went beyond reduced exploration and capital spending, as it also weakened Nigeria’s human resources in the sector. Speaking at the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria Human Capacity Development Conference and Expo in Effurun, Delta State, she explained that geoscientists were among the first professionals to exit the industry when companies began cutting budgets, while petroleum engineers were later affected as operators shifted their focus from expansion to basic maintenance and survival.
However, with investment and project development showing signs of recovery, the industry is now facing an unusual problem: finding enough highly skilled professionals to support the next phase of growth. Eyesan said renewed activity following the Petroleum Industry Act and other government initiatives was creating demand for a new generation of specialised workers. The Federal Government’s 2026 Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives (Tax Remission) Order, signed by President Bola Tinubu on August 6, is also aimed at improving the economics of qualifying deep offshore projects and encouraging more investment.
Eyesan warned that Nigeria cannot rely on outdated training models to meet the demands of a rapidly changing oil and gas industry. She called for training institutions, regulators, operators and universities to update their programmes to include digitalised operations, advanced geoscience, digital twins, digital drilling, automation, real-time data analysis and other emerging technologies. According to her, modern upstream projects increasingly depend on the ability to combine subsurface data, field information, modelling and advanced analytics to make faster and smarter investment and operational decisions.
The NUPRC chief also stressed that developing the right workforce would be critical to Nigeria’s ability to attract and retain future oil and gas investment. She argued that technical professionals must better understand the commercial impact of their decisions, while commercial teams also need stronger technical knowledge to navigate increasingly complex energy projects. As Nigeria seeks to turn renewed investor interest into sustainable growth, the message is clear: bringing capital back into the oil sector will not be enough unless the country also rebuilds the skilled workforce needed to deliver the projects and compete in the next era of energy development.
source: The guardian
