The Managing Director of Mudiame International Limited, Prof. Sunny Eromosele, has criticised the Nigerian oil and gas sector for its failure to build and enforce quality assurance systems around welding and fabrication, essential pillars of upstream gas infrastructure.
Speaking at the International Institute of Welding (IIW) Annual Assembly and International Conference in Italy, Eromosele admitted that while Nigeria has made about 80 per cent progress in low welding for the oil and gas sector, lack of capacity, and relying on skill imports from countries like India and the Philippines to meet high technology needs.
The development, Eromosele said, contributes to the country’s rising cost of per-barrel oil production, which goes as high as $40 in some situations.
According to him, technology is rapidly transforming the welding and manufacturing landscape with laser welding and automated welding systems, which are common globally, while 3D printing produces entire houses and car parts without human intervention.
Noting that adaptive manufacturing is eliminating traditional welding jobs, Eromosele said if Nigeria does not act now, many welders and technicians would become obsolete.
Eromosele, who said he built Mudiame University to respond to these needs, warned that Nigeria’s reliance on foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), imported welding consumables and overseas laboratories is not only draining foreign exchange, but also stifling local competence development and global competitiveness.
“Welding is not just the heart of oil and gas infrastructure, but critical to industrial growth from pipelines to pressure vessels. Yet, in Nigeria, we do not have a reliable traceability system for welding consumables. When a quality audit comes, we can’t link what we use to any recognised OEMs. And that is a serious problem,” he said.
He explained that in industrialised economies, traceability in welding is non-negotiable. Regulators and project owners expect every material, weld and process to be traceable, a requirement that many Nigerian fabricators are unable to meet due to a lack of standardisation and enforcement.
“You cannot industrialise without standards,” Eromosele stressed, adding: “We cannot continue fabricating in silos with no alignment across OEMs, welders, laboratories and project stakeholders.”
The Mudiame chief, whose company operates a globally accredited testing and calibration laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025), said that more than 100 fabrication yards exist in Nigeria, but that very few meet standards required by companies such as Chevron or TotalEnergies. As a result, he explained, multinational projects prefer to offshore their fabrication work, despite Nigeria’s abundant manpower and local content aspirations.
“We need to ask ourselves: are we truly ready to play in the big league? A pressure vessel welded in Nigeria must be certified to global standards. We have the people, but the processes, traceability systems and quality assurance frameworks are missing.”
Eromosele called for a coordinated national strategy to build a sustainable welding ecosystem, one that includes standardised training, proper certification of welders, local sourcing of consumables and harmonised quality audits.
He also criticised project owners and regulators for inconsistent enforcement of local content and quality benchmarks, noting that many welding-related problems arise because imported consumables are preferred without proper justification or documentation.
“Every time we import what we should produce, we kill the local economy and limit our technical growth. It’s not just about local content, it’s about building national competence and trust in our systems,” he said.
He urged greater synergy across industry players, warning that without urgent reforms in welding, testing and fabrication standards, Nigeria would continue to miss opportunities in the global oil and gas as well as energy transition landscape.
He said: “It is time to move from policy papers to real industrial development.
Welding is foundational, and if we don’t get it right, everything else collapses.”
