An oil and gas expert and Deputy Group Managing Director of Divcon Engineering Limited, Dr. Robert Oloyede, has unveiled a six-dimensional framework to strengthen physical asset management in Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas sector, urging operators to prioritise human capital, knowledge transfer and security to maximise ageing oil assets.

Oloyede presented the research paper, “Enhancing Physical Asset Management in Nigeria’s Upstream Oil & Gas Sector: A Six-Dimensional Framework for Indigenous and Multinational Operators,” at the ongoing Technical Seminar of the 25th anniversary of the NOG Energy Week Conference and Exhibition in Abuja.

The NOG Energy Week Technical Seminar, a Continuing Professional Development-certified programme, brought together technical and engineering professionals to discuss emerging technologies, research findings and industry best practices in the oil, gas and energy sectors.

Speaking during the presentation, Oloyede said indigenous oil companies had continued to demonstrate resilience and innovation despite inheriting ageing assets from multinational operators.

He said: “Nigeria’s indigenous operators demonstrate remarkable necessity-driven innovation despite inheriting 40 to 60-year-old infrastructure, capability gaps and operating complexity. The greatest asset is not physical—it is human. Tacit knowledge of veteran engineers and organisational resilience constitute more valuable resources than equipment itself.”

According to him, the Six-Dimensional Physical Asset Management Practices Enhancement Framework offers a practical roadmap for sustainable asset management in Nigeria’s upstream petroleum industry.

He noted that while multinational oil companies provide valuable operational benchmarks, their practices cannot be adopted wholesale because indigenous firms operate under significantly different financial, infrastructural and security realities.

The study identified seven major challenges affecting operators, including ageing infrastructure, security disruptions, financial constraints, poor knowledge management, technology integration gaps, implementation challenges and socio-environmental issues.

Oloyede disclosed that many indigenous operators lose between 40 and 97 per cent of production to pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, sabotage and illegal bunkering, while also grappling with obsolete facilities inherited during asset divestments.

He recommended that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission link licence renewals to phased compliance with ISO 55000 asset management standards, while urging multinational operators to transfer technical documentation, operational history and mentorship to indigenous firms during divestments.

He also called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to standardise asset management protocols during asset handovers and advised indigenous operators to adopt the proposed framework, beginning with strengthening knowledge management and security systems.

“The framework’s insights extend beyond Nigeria and are applicable to asset-intensive industries across developing economies facing ageing infrastructure, security threats and severe resource constraints,” he said.

He said sustained investment in human capital and institutional knowledge would be critical to improving productivity and ensuring long-term resilience in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

Also speaking, Speaking on Nigeria’s gas agenda, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, said the Federal Government is leveraging the country’s over 215 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves to drive industrialisation, strengthen energy security and diversify the economy under the Decade of Gas Initiative.