Management instability, banking sector bottlenecks delaying local content growth—Stakeholders
By Precious Mark
The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) have voiced deep concern over incessant management changes in the oil sector and a banking sector funding nightmare, identifying both trends as major bottlenecks delaying the upscaling of local capacity and supply chains.
The industry chiefs aired these operational challenges in Abuja on Monday during a key panel session at the ongoing 25th Edition of the Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy Week, entitled “Upscaling Capacity and Supply Chains to Meet Evolving Energy Demands.”
The session served as a vital platform for public and private stakeholders to evaluate missing links in industry-wide synergy, infrastructure deficits, and digital adoption across local service networks.
Expressing the frustrations of state-backed capacity builders, Usman Pindar, General Manager of Nigerian Content and Industry Collaboration at the PTDF, lamented that despite training thousands of Nigerians, the fund consistently struggles to successfully integrate its beneficiaries into the core oil and gas industry.
“We do a lot more than scholarships. We have tried severally to engage with the industry through our programs, but all we get is a promise that they will get back to us. Because we are a service provider, we haven’t had the level of success we should have achieved. We have trained thousands of Nigerians in our research programmes and within the academia, but we haven’t had much success in engaging with commercial industry players,” Pindar stated.
Pindar traced the lack of continuity in these human capital investments directly to administrative instability across the sector.
“Incessant changes in management have led to this reality. The key takeaway for me is the critical need for collaboration. We are doing a lot more project-based training, and we are trying to determine exactly what the needs of the industry are, but we are constantly told to come back later. We are currently working with the NCDMB to see how to execute an effective, industry-wide integration,” Pindar noted.
On the part of indigenous service firms, Engr. Obi Uzu, Vice Chairman of PETAN, identified severe funding constraints and an infiltration of unqualified actors as the core factors stunting the growth of local companies trying to scale up for complex offshore tasks.
“One of my own takeaways is that operators are switching to performance-based modelling. The industry has seen enormous issues surrounding that area. Before now, individuals who had no business being in that space were the ones securing the operational slots,” Engr. Uzu noted.
Engr. Uzu stressed that local commercial banks are currently ill-equipped to support the long financial lifecycle required for major oil and gas infrastructure.
“We need dedicated funds,” Engr. Uzu pointed out.
He added that, “Long-term projects take a while to mature, and approaching local banks to secure money for these projects is a complete nightmare. The investment required is exceptionally high, which is why the service companies operating in the deepwater space remain small. There are simply no resources to build adequate capacity for this kind of environment. The government should introduce additional incentives to encourage local manufacturing; just look at what the Dangote Refinery has saved us from in terms of fuel scarcity. Ecosystem enhancement is vital.”
Highlighting technological advancement, Chris Osarumwense, President of the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN), urged local firms to completely phase out manual operations and aggressively import specialized equipment to match global competitors.
“We have to embrace technology. We are now exporting some of those technologies out of the country. Look at the infrastructure you need to be able to exist. As a company, we have embraced AI and everything is automated; we are no longer using paper. The next step is equipment; you need to possess the latest equipment to improve your operational methodology. Look at what your competitors are using in other places around the world and replicate those kinds of technologies in Nigeria,” Osarumwense said.
He added that on the human side, the industry must maintain a sustainable structure, training local professionals to become the global experts Nigeria can export to other countries rather than relying on expatriates.
Responding to the workforce gaps raised by the operators, Alexis Emelle, General Manager of Human Capacity Development at the NCDMB, explained that the regulatory board uses expatriate quota tracking to design specialized, long-term training programs that meet immediate market needs.
“We collaborate with industries and service providers to train people to close these gaps. It is not just general training; our Field Readiness Training involves six months of classroom instruction alongside extensive On-the-Job Training. We are looking at alternative ways to fill these gaps through collaboration with the Planning, Research and Statistics directorate. We rigorously review the submission of expatriate quotas by operators to discover exactly where technical skills are lacking. The NCDMB is actively closing these gaps by matching training strictly with industry demand,” Emelle concluded.