The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has warned that Nigeria risks losing control of its energy future unless urgent action is taken to address the country’s widening workforce and technical skills gap.
NNPC Chief Human Resources Officer, Kazachiyang Nuhu, said the convergence of the Petroleum Industry Act, the Decade of Gas initiative, increasing participation by local operators and the global energy transition was creating demand for technical talent that the industry was struggling to meet.
Nuhu spoke on Thursday at the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) Human Capital Development Conference and Expo in Warri, Delta State.
In a presentation at the conference, he said Nigeria’s changing energy landscape, driven by policy shifts, market developments, technology and changing expectations among younger workers, had created an urgent need to rethink how the industry develops its workforce.
He said artificial intelligence, digitalisation and automation were shortening the lifespan of technical skills, while investment was increasingly shifting towards liquefied natural gas, cleaner energy molecules and low-carbon opportunities.
Nuhu warned that failure to reskill and reposition Nigerian workers could undermine the country’s ability to participate effectively in the emerging energy economy.
“Reskill, reposition or risk becoming a spectator in our own industry,” he told stakeholders at the conference.
He identified workforce and skills shortages, an ageing workforce and brain drain, commonly known as “japa”, among the major challenges confronting Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
He also pointed to a growing disconnect between academia and industry, particularly the gap between what is taught in educational institutions and the practical skills employers require from workers from their first day on the job.
Other challenges identified by Nuhu included weak safety culture, oil spills and gas flaring; vandalism, crude oil theft, surveillance and metering gaps; the supply of quality materials and equipment; ageing assets, reliability issues and project cost overruns.
He also highlighted the need for stronger capabilities in digital oilfields, environmental, social and governance practices, refinery operations, product quality, LPG safety and trade finance.
According to Nuhu, addressing the skills gap requires a fundamental change in the way human capital development is approached across the industry.
He said training must be more closely connected to production, safety, reliability and cost management, while programmes should reflect current field realities rather than rely on generic training manuals.
Nuhu called for training programmes to be benchmarked against global standards and supported by technologies such as simulators, digital twins, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
“Every naira spent on training must translate to a safer plant, a skilled employee, and a stronger balance sheet,” he said.
He disclosed that NNPC would also change how it engages training providers, stressing that trainers must understand the direction of the industry and prepare workers for emerging requirements.
“We will partner only with trainers who teach the industry we are becoming, not the one we are leaving behind,” Nuhu said.
According to him, NNPC is already developing its workforce through initial professional development, career pathways, industry exposure, leadership pipelines, mentorship and knowledge transfer programmes.
Nuhu said the ultimate measure of Nigerian content should not simply be the number of Nigerians employed on major projects, but the number of Nigerians who possess the expertise to lead such projects to international standards.
“Not how many Nigerians were hired, but how many world-class Nigerians led the project,” he said.
He argued that local content should increasingly be measured through expertise rather than employment percentages, with future industry requirements spanning technical, digital, commercial and human capabilities.
These capabilities, he said, would include renewable energy integration, gas-to-power, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance, energy economics, carbon markets, sustainable finance, adaptive leadership and systems thinking.
Nuhu challenged stakeholders to determine whether Nigeria would become a contributor or merely a consumer of the emerging energy economy.
He called on industry players, training providers and academic institutions to move beyond isolated efforts and establish a unified approach to developing the country’s energy workforce.
OGTAN President, Chris Osarunmewense, said the association was focused on sustaining discussions around how Nigeria could develop a workforce capable of delivering on the promises of companies operating across the oil and gas industry.
Osarunmewense said human capital development was a continuous process requiring the industry to identify, develop and nurture people’s potential.
He said the 2026 OGTAN conference was designed to bring stakeholders together to discuss practical ways of addressing skills shortages across the industry.
The decision to hold the conference in Warri rather than Lagos or Abuja, he added, was deliberate because of the city’s historical role in Nigeria’s petroleum industry.
“For us, this choice was meaningful. Warri is not simply a venue; it is part of the history of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry,” Osarunmewense said.
He noted that the Niger Delta had remained at the heart of Nigeria’s petroleum industry for decades, with its history of exploration, production, processing, oilfield services, technical manpower and community development closely connected to the country’s wider energy economy.
Osarunmewense said OGTAN wanted international participants to experience the Niger Delta not merely as a region associated with petroleum production, but as an area with significant talent, enterprise, technical expertise, institutions and human capital potential.
He said the collaboration with the Petroleum Training Institute further strengthened Warri’s suitability as the conference venue, given the institute’s role in technical and professional training for the petroleum industry.
The OGTAN president stressed that Nigeria’s human capital challenges could not be solved by a single stakeholder.
“The challenges before the industry are too complex for any single organisation to solve. The government alone cannot solve it. Regulators cannot solve it alone. Oil and gas companies cannot solve it alone. Training providers cannot solve it alone. Universities and technical institutions cannot do so alone either. We need collaboration across the value chain,” he said.
The discussions highlight the growing importance of technical skills as Nigeria seeks to expand gas development, attract energy investment and adapt its oil and gas workforce to a rapidly changing global energy landscape.
