Nigeria may have the resources, policies, and ambitions to build a larger energy industry, but the country could still struggle to capture the opportunity if it cannot produce enough skilled workers to operate it.

That was the warning from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Kazachiyang Nuhu, who said Nigeria’s energy workforce was facing a widening technical skills gap as the industry changes.

Speaking at the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria Human Capital Development Conference and Expo in Warri, Delta State, Nuhu said the Petroleum Industry Act, the Decade of Gas initiative, greater participation by local operators and the global energy transition were creating new demands for technical talent.

Artificial intelligence, digitalisation and automation are also shortening the lifespan of existing skills, while investment is increasingly shifting towards LNG, cleaner fuels and lower carbon opportunities.

“Reskill, reposition or risk becoming a spectator in our own industry,” Nuhu told stakeholders.

The industry is changing faster than its workforce

Nuhu identified an ageing workforce, brain drain or “japa”, and the growing disconnect between universities and industry among the biggest challenges facing Nigeria’s energy sector.

The problem, he said, is increasingly visible in the gap between what graduates are taught and what employers need from workers from their first day on the job.

Other challenges include weak safety culture, oil spills and gas flaring, crude theft and vandalism, surveillance and metering gaps, ageing assets, project overruns and shortages of quality materials and equipment.

The industry also needs new capabilities in digital oilfields, environmental, social and governance practices, refinery operations, product quality, LPG safety and trade finance. Nuhu argued that training must therefore move beyond generic programmes and become directly connected to production, safety, reliability and cost.

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“Every naira spent on training must translate to a safer plant, a skilled employee, and a stronger balance sheet,” he said.

He also called for training providers to use technologies such as simulators, digital twins, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, while benchmarking programmes against global standards.

“We will partner only with trainers who teach the industry we are becoming, not the one we are leaving behind,” Nuhu said.

That represents a significant shift for an industry where training has often been treated as a separate human resources function rather than an investment directly linked to operational performance.

Local content needs to mean more than headcount

Nuhu also challenged the way Nigeria measures local content in the energy industry. He argued that employing more Nigerians is not enough if they are not acquiring the expertise required to manage complex projects to international standards.

“Not how many Nigerians were hired, but how many world-class Nigerians led the project,” he said.

He added that “true local content is measured in expertise, not percentages.”

For Nuhu, the skills Nigeria needs will increasingly extend beyond traditional oil and gas expertise. They will include renewable energy integration, gas to power, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance, energy economics, carbon markets, sustainable finance, adaptive leadership and systems thinking.

The question, he said, is whether Nigeria will become a contributor or merely a consumer of the future energy economy.

NNPC said it is already developing its workforce through professional development, career pathways, industry exposure, leadership programmes, mentorship and knowledge transfer. But the challenge extends beyond one company.

Warri’s role in Nigeria’s energy workforce

OGTAN President Chris Osarunmewense said the industry needed a collective approach to developing the workforce required to support Nigeria’s energy ambitions.

He said human capital development was a continuous process that required organisations to identify and nurture people’s potential.

“Human capital develops by progression. At OGTAN, therefore, we treasure the potential of people who have developed human capital in nature to effectively operate within the oil and gas industry,” Osarunmewense said.

The decision to hold the conference in Warri rather than Lagos or Abuja was deliberate, he said, because of the city’s place in Nigeria’s petroleum history.

“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,” he said.

The Niger Delta has been central to Nigeria’s petroleum industry for decades, with its history tied to exploration, production, processing, technical services and community development.

Osarunmewense said OGTAN wanted international participants to see the region not simply as a petroleum-producing area, but as a source of talent, enterprise, technical expertise and human capital.

The involvement of the Petroleum Training Institute further strengthened Warri’s suitability, given the institute’s long-standing role in petroleum sector training. But Osarunmewense stressed that no single institution could close Nigeria’s skills gap alone.

“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.

For Nigeria, the warning comes at a time when the energy industry is being reshaped by gas development, digital technology, automation and the global shift towards lower carbon energy.

Meiza Nigeria