Nigeria is confronting a potentially damaging double loss in its energy workforce. Experienced professionals are approaching retirement just as younger engineers, technical specialists and digital professionals are leaving the country in search of better opportunities abroad, GLORIA NWAFOR
reports.

Growing concerns suggest that the combination of experienced workers leaving the industry and younger workers continuing to migrate abroad could leave the oil and gas industry without the technical depth needed to support new investment, expand production, and navigate the increasingly complex demands of digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and the energy transition.

The convergence of an ageing technical workforce and the outward migration of mid-level engineering and digital talent is creating a potentially dangerous gap in Nigeria’s energy workforce.

The concern goes beyond the immediate worker shortage. In an industry where technical competence and institutional knowledge are accumulated over decades, the departure of experienced professionals can result in the loss of expertise that cannot easily be replaced through recruitment.

At the other end of the spectrum, the migration of younger professionals risks creating a gap between those approaching retirement and those available to assume increasingly complex responsibilities.

The implication is that Nigeria could have the resources, infrastructure and investment opportunities required to expand its energy industry but lack sufficient people with the expertise to operate, maintain and develop them.

Stakeholders raised these concerns at the fifth edition of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) Energy and Labour Summit (PEALS) in Abuja, identifying an ageing workforce, skills shortages and brain drain as major threats to the industry’s future.

The warning comes as Nigeria seeks to attract fresh investment into its oil and gas sector while preparing its workforce for digitalisation, artificial intelligence, the energy transition and increasingly sophisticated production technologies.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported an unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, while time-related underemployment stood at 9.2 per cent. More significantly, the NBS labour force data showed the dominance of informal employment, highlighting broader structural weaknesses in Nigeria’s labour market.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), meanwhile, put Nigeria’s composite labour-underutilisation rate at 13.6 per cent in 2024, further underscoring the disconnect between labour availability and the specific competencies productive sectors require.

For the energy industry, the skills challenge is becoming more urgent as investment prospects improve.

Commission Chief Executive, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said Nigeria would require a modern upstream workforce to take full advantage of new investment opportunities in the sector.

She said the Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Project Incentives (Tax Remission) Executive Order 2026, signed by President Bola Tinubu, could unlock significant new offshore investment, create jobs and support the country’s ambition to increase crude oil production to three million barrels per day by 2030.

But Eyesan warned that investment could not translate into sustainable production without the right human capital.

Speaking at the summit, she said Nigeria’s skills gap partly stemmed from the sharp decline in offshore oil and gas investment over the past decade.

According to her, investment in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, which stood at about $26 billion in 2014, had fallen to roughly $2 billion annually by 2023.

“In that period, the first that we lost were the geoscientists. So, once the budget cuts started, there was no more exploration, so the geoscientists had to be offloaded,” she said.

She added that petroleum engineers were also affected as operators moved from developing new wells to maintaining existing assets.

“Today we are attracting new investments, and so we want to see an upward trajectory. It stands to reason that you must go back to the basics. First, we need the right subsurface competencies. The right competencies must now include the right digital skills,” she said.

She identified six priority competency areas requiring urgent attention: digitalisation, artificial intelligence and data analytics; advanced subsurface and reservoir management; commercial, fiscal and regulatory expertise; gas development and energy transition competencies; asset integrity, health, safety and environment and decommissioning management; and project leadership, stakeholder management and multidisciplinary collaboration.

On why industry cannot afford to lose both experience and new skills, Vice President, Human Resources Operations, Seplat Energy Unlimited, Emo Udobong-Ntia, also highlighted the human capital challenge, saying Nigeria’s energy industry was entering a period of simultaneous transition.

She said while the country was seeking to maximise its oil and gas resources, it was also expected to deepen its gas value chain and develop capabilities relevant to the wider energy transition.

That, she said, meant the industry needed workers who understood conventional oil and gas operations while possessing emerging competencies in industrial automation, artificial intelligence, digital systems, cybersecurity, emissions monitoring and other advanced technologies.

But this transition, she noted, was occurring against the backdrop of an ageing technical workforce and the migration of mid-level engineering and digital talent.

The danger, according to Udobong-Ntia, was not simply that Nigeria could have fewer workers, but that it could lose the combination of experience and new skills required at the same time.

Senior professionals carry years of specialised knowledge, while younger workers often bring digital capabilities and adaptability. If the two groups are not effectively connected, she warned, Nigeria risks losing valuable institutional knowledge just as it tries to acquire new competencies.

She advocated deliberate knowledge-transfer and succession systems rather than leaving the process to chance.

Among the measures she proposed were structured mentor-mentee arrangements, documentation of institutional knowledge, standard operating procedures and targeted technical rotations.

She argued that human capital should be treated with the same seriousness as physical energy infrastructure.

“People design projects. They build facilities. They maintain equipment, manage safety, solve operational problems and keep businesses running. In other words, the physical infrastructure of the energy sector ultimately depends on a less visible infrastructure — the knowledge and competence of the people behind it,” she said.

Udobong-Ntia said the migration of skilled Nigerian professionals was particularly significant because the industry was competing for talent in a global market.

The same engineers, digital specialists and technical professionals required to support Nigeria’s energy ambitions are also being sought by energy companies and economies outside the country.

“When experienced workers depart without adequate succession, companies lose institutional knowledge.

Younger employees lose mentors. Projects may struggle to build sufficient technical depth, while employers face increased pressure to recruit or train replacements. The cycle can ultimately make human capital development more expensive and less effective,” she said.

On why universities must catch up, the problem, however, is not limited to retaining existing professionals.

Stakeholders also identified a widening disconnect between what Nigerian universities teach and the competencies the modern energy industry requires.

Udobong-Ntia called for stronger university-industry collaboration, structured apprenticeships, dynamic internships and real-world project simulations to improve the transition from classroom learning to industrial practice.

She said stable, capable workforces were critical to operational continuity, asset integrity, project delivery, institutional knowledge retention, and investor confidence.

“That requires employers to invest in continuous technical development. It requires universities to understand where the industry is heading. It requires government to create an environment that can retain investment and talent. And it requires labour unions to see skills development, productivity and enterprise sustainability as part of the broader workforce agenda,” she said.

She added that Nigeria cannot afford to treat human capital as an afterthought in its energy strategy.

Similarly, the Chief Human Resources Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Kazachiyang Nuhu, also warned that Nigeria risked losing control of its energy future if it failed to urgently close widening workforce and technical skills gaps.

Nuhu said the convergence of the Petroleum Industry Act, the Decade of Gas initiative, rising participation by local operators and the global energy transition was creating demand for technical talent that the industry was struggling to develop fast enough.

He identified workforce and skills gaps, an ageing workforce, and brain drain, commonly referred to as ‘japa’, as major challenges confronting the sector.

Other challenges, he said, 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 said the solution required a fundamental shift in how the industry approached human capital development.

Training, he argued, must be linked more closely to production, safety, reliability and cost, while programmes should reflect current field realities rather than rely on generic manuals.

He called for training to be benchmarked against global standards and supported by emerging technologies, including simulators, digital twins, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence.

On keeping experts beyond retirement, Executive General Manager, People and Talent Management, HR, TotalEnergies Ltd., Kenechukwu Esomeju, identified another dimension of the ageing workforce challenge – retaining institutional knowledge even after experienced employees leave formal employment.

She said organisations needed structured systems to transfer knowledge from older, highly experienced workers to younger employees before that expertise was lost.

She advocated mentorship, structured knowledge-transfer programmes and technology-enabled documentation of institutional knowledge.

Experienced workers, she added, could also remain engaged after formal retirement through mentoring, training and advisory roles.

Esomeju also urged younger professionals to approach experienced workers with humility and a willingness to learn, noting that some of the knowledge required to solve complex industry problems could not be acquired from textbooks alone.

Citing reasons why career pathways were critical to retention, Executive Director, HR, Exxon Mobil Nigeria Ltd., Emem Abraham, stressed the importance of creating alternative career pathways for technical professionals who want to remain technical experts rather than move into people-management positions.

She said organisations should identify talent early and provide individual development plans that help employees to gain the experience needed to achieve their career aspirations.

Similarly, Director, HR, Chevron Nigeria and Mid-Africa Region, Anthony Effiong, warned that uncertainty surrounding the energy transition, divestments and restructuring could undermine workforce stability if employees were not provided with clearer career pathways and opportunities to acquire new skills.

He said workers increasingly wanted career growth, opportunities to move across functions, meaningful responsibilities, openness and a sense of belonging within their organisations.

According to him, employees were more likely to remain where employers demonstrated a long-term commitment to their careers and provided opportunities to develop beyond their current roles.

On artificial intelligence and the future of jobs, Effiong urged workers to view technology not simply as a threat but as a tool that required them to acquire new skills and learn how to work alongside emerging technologies.

With Nigeria seeking to attract fresh investment, expand production, deepen its gas economy and participate in the emerging energy landscape, stakeholders agreed that the country’s ability to meet those ambitions would depend not only on capital and infrastructure but on whether it can build and retain the people capable of delivering them.

For an industry facing the simultaneous pressures of retirement, brain drain, technological change and energy transition, the challenge is becoming clear: Nigeria must not only produce more skilled energy workers, but also ensure that the knowledge of those already in the industry is transferred before it disappears.

This is just as the country’s energy future may ultimately depend on how successfully it bridges that gap.