The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has raised the alarm over Nigeria’s widening energy workforce and technical skills gap, warning that the country risks losing control of its energy future if urgent steps are not taken to close the gap.

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The Chief Human Resources Officer, NNPC Limited, Kazachiyang Nuhu, said the convergence of the Petroleum Industry Act, the Decade of Gas, rising participation by local operators and the global energy transition were creating a demand for technical talent that the industry was struggling to develop fast enough.

Nuhu spoke Thursday at the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria HCD Conference and Expo in Warri, Delta State.

In a presentation at the OGTAN conference, Nuhu maintained that the changing energy landscape, driven by policy, market shifts, technology and changing expectations of younger workers, had created a technical talent demand that Nigeria could not afford to ignore.

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He said artificial intelligence, digitalisation and automation were compressing skill cycles, while capital was increasingly moving towards liquefied natural gas, cleaner molecules and low-carbon opportunities.

Nuhu warned that unless the workforce was urgently reskilled and repositioned, Nigeria could lose its ability to effectively participate 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 gaps, an ageing workforce and brain drain, commonly referred to as ‘japa’, among the major challenges confronting the industry. He also identified a widening disconnect between academia and industry, particularly the gap between what was taught in educational institutions and what the industry required from employees from day one.

Other challenges highlighted included weak safety culture, spills and flaring; vandalism, crude theft, surveillance and metering gaps; supply of quality materials and equipment; ageing assets, reliability and project overruns; digital oilfield and environmental, social and governance skills; as well as refinery operations, product quality, LPG safety and trade finance.

Nuhu noted that the solution required a fundamental shift in how human capital development was approached across the industry, noting that training must become more closely linked to production, safety, reliability and cost, while programmes must be based on current field realities rather than generic manuals.

📰 Source: Punch Nigeria