● Wole Ogunsanya says Nigeria needs aggressive human capacity devt, $6bn in Equipment to handle 3 million barrels output target
The Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, PETAN, Engineer Wole Ogunsanya, has raised the alarm over an escalating brain drain in the nation’s oil and gas industry, warning that Nigeria’s best experienced professionals are being aggressively recruited by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations.
Speaking at a Media Roundtable organised by PETAN in Lagos, Ogunsanya, in a presentation titled “The State of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry: Opportunities and Challenges,” said the poaching is creating a huge gap that urgently needs to be filled.
“The best of our experienced Nigerians in the oil and gas industry are being recruited by Qatar, Saudi and others for their industry. This poaching is creating a huge gap that needs to be filled. It clearly shows that those countries too need them,” he said.
The PETAN Chairman who was in company of Dr. Joan Faluyi, Publicity Secretary, PETAN, and other officials, linked the crisis to the divestment of International Oil Companies, IOCs, from onshore assets, noting that for decades, the IOCs were the training ground for Nigeria’s top professionals.
“If you do a head count of top fliers in the industry, in every 10, about 8 of them were once trained by the IOCs. Now that the multinationals are divesting, who takes charge?” he queried.
Ogunsanya therefore called on all indigenous companies that are taking over divested assets to develop an aggressive plan to massively train those who will come into the industry.
He argued that Nigeria does not lack young talent to fill the vacuum, pointing out that there is no state in the federation that does not have at least two universities.
“The issue is not that we don’t have young graduates that can be in the oil and gas industry. The issue is how do we get these young graduates to come into the industry,” he said.
He challenged new asset owners: “What are the programmes that are being set up today by the buyers of divested assets by the IOCs to train people?”
On capacity gaps, Ogunsanya estimated that Nigeria needs about $6 billion in equipment to handle increased production targets.
“We estimate that we need $6bn in Equipment to handle million barrels production,” he said, stressing that funding and local capacity development are critical to achieving the target.
He however expressed confidence in the capacity built by PETAN members, saying very few multinationals will now come to invest in Nigeria’s oil services because local players have developed capacity across the service value chain.
“We are providing services that are cheaper and of high quality,” he noted.
Ogunsanya also commended the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, which charges one percent to fund equipment acquisition, saying the Board has done very well in supporting indigenous capacity, citing the WalterSmith modular refinery as a success story of local content intervention.
He warned that unless the braindrain is reversed with a deliberate, industry-wide training revolution, Nigeria risks producing oil without Nigerians to run its most technical operations.
SOURCE: platformafrica.com