Lokpobiri says Nigeria Is Ready To Build World-Class Oil & Gas Workforce, Pledges Stronger FG Support For OGTAN
Olushola Bello
Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), has declared that Nigeria is well-positioned to build a world-class oil and gas workforce, backed by growing investor confidence and an unprecedented pipeline of major projects heading toward Final Investment Decisions (FIDs).
He has therefore pledged the commitment of the government to deepen support for the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) to help make that happen.
Lokpobiri spoke in his keynote address on Day Two, “Setting the Agenda” of the ongoing OGTAN Human Capital Development (HCD) Conference and Expo in Warri, Delta State, on Wednesday.
He described Nigeria as an emerging global investment hub, attributing the shift to the incentive-driven reforms of President Bola Tinubu, which he said have improved the country’s competitiveness for international capital.
He added that Nigeria’s relative regional stability, strategic location and proximity to major markets, including Europe, provide additional advantages for oil and gas investment and petroleum products distribution.
According to Lokpobiri, this unprecedented pipeline of projects moving toward FID will ultimately require professionals trained to globally competitive standards, much of that training to be delivered through OGTAN’s more than 400 members.
“Those human beings are members of the public who must have been trained by OGTAN… who are expected to have the competence to deliver those projects, not just for Nigeria, but for the entire world,” he said.
The Minister further noted that many lecturers and resource persons across Nigerian universities and tertiary institutions are still working with materials that have not kept pace with a modern, AI-driven industry.
He emphasised that trainers themselves must be retrained to equip the next generation of engineers, technicians and other professionals with the skills the industry now demands.
“If the training system underpinning that capital is still operating on a fifty-year-old blueprint, the risk is that Nigeria’s newly de-risked capital arrives faster than its newly-promised workforce can be built,” he said.
Lokpobiri revealed that the Federal Government’s response to closing the gap is being channelled through the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, in direct partnership with OGTAN, to strengthen training capacity nationwide.
“As government, what we do is see how we can support OGTAN members. The government is committed to this, and we are doing it through NCDMB and the NOGICD Act,” he said.
Lokpobiri has therefore urged OGTAN to expand its focus continentally, noting that countries such as Angola, Congo and Gabon already depend on Nigerian-trained oil and gas professionals.
“The rest of Africa is depending on human resources from Nigeria, and someone must be responsible for training that human capital — not just for Nigeria,” he said.
He said government’s ambition is to develop Nigerian professionals capable of competing for oil and gas jobs globally, linking this human capital push directly to Nigeria’s broader ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.
“We will provide the enabling environment to raise human capital, not just for Nigeria, but to take over oil and gas jobs globally.”
Lokpobiri reaffirmed that NCDMB, under the NOGICD Act, holds a clear mandate to support capacity development, but acknowledged that government backing for OGTAN would need to be strengthened further to match the scale of human capital demand expected from the sector’s emerging investment cycle.
