The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has called for urgent upskilling of Nigeria’s oil and gas workforce, warning that the country must develop modern technical and digital competencies to fully benefit from ongoing reforms and attract new investments.

The Commission Chief Executive, Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said the Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Project Incentives (Tax Remission) Executive Order 2026 recently signed by President Bola Tinubu could unlock about $50 billion in new offshore investments and create additional employment opportunities.

Eyesan spoke on Thursday at the inaugural Human Capital Development (HCD) Conference and Expo 2026 organised by the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) in Warri.

She said Nigeria’s ambition to increase crude oil production to three million barrels per day by 2030 would require a highly skilled and adaptable upstream workforce capable of meeting the demands of a rapidly changing industry.

According to her, the sector experienced a significant decline in investment over the past decade, creating a skills gap that must now be urgently addressed as fresh investments return to the industry.

Eyesan recalled that oil and gas investments in Nigeria reached about $26 billion in 2014 but declined to approximately $2 billion annually by 2023.

She explained that the prolonged decline in investment resulted in the loss of critical expertise, particularly among geoscientists and petroleum engineers, as companies reduced exploration and drilling activities and focused largely on 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 of all, we need the right competencies in sub-surface,” she said.

The NUPRC boss, however, stressed that the competencies required in today’s industry go beyond traditional petroleum engineering skills, noting that digitalisation and emerging technologies have fundamentally changed the way oil and gas operations are conducted.

She said modern professionals must understand digital technologies, including the application of digital tools to drilling and other upstream operations.

Eyesan 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 (HSE) and decommissioning management; as well as project leadership, stakeholder management and multidisciplinary collaboration.

She said strengthening these areas would enable Nigeria to build the workforce needed to support increased investment, improve productivity and maximise the benefits of the country’s petroleum sector reforms.

The NUPRC chief emphasised that human capital development must therefore remain central to Nigeria’s strategy for revitalising the upstream sector and achieving sustainable growth in oil and gas production.