The energy industry is rapidly evolving, with more investments being made in fossil fuels and a gradual transformation towards clean and renewable energy. This suggests that innovative and sustainable solutions will be required to guarantee energy security across the globe. The recent focus on digital transformation (data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things) is a great example of how such trends are reshaping the global oil and gas industry. This also means that job seekers must obtain special certifications in these areas to compete and add value to the hiring companies.
There have been multiple restructuring cycles within the energy sector over the years, in response to the principle of supply and demand and other contributing factors. This trend is expected to continue, with oil and gas companies seeking to improve decision-making and operational efficiency, leading to increased profits and shareholder dividends. While creative and innovative solutions are important, political stability, fiscal terms, and regulatory policies will be critical to attracting increased foreign direct investment in Africa, South America, and other emerging prolific focus areas. Operational models and recruitment trends will continue to change in response to commodity prices. The key challenges, however, include lowering capital expenditure for future growth projects, developing and deploying low-cost, high-value tools and technologies, arresting natural attrition due to an exodus of retirement-age practitioners, and guaranteeing knowledge transfer within the energy sector.
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The Federal Government of Nigeria has made significant progress towards attracting foreign direct investment by introducing the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and conducting Marginal Field Bidding rounds (MFBRs) in recent times; however, to really stimulate future growth, the focus should shift to strict regulatory compliance, stiffer penalties including relinquishment of undeveloped acreages, deployment of a Minimum Functional Objective (MFO) investor mindset for Joint Venture major capital projects, and exploring more creative funding models like third-party funding, etc. Nigeria’s quest to increase daily production to 2 million barrels of oil per day is achievable if the appropriate steps are taken—more indigenous companies should be incentivised to form strong partnerships through consortiums and take over existing marginal fields and surface infrastructure divested by the international oil companies. This recommendation is driven by the recent successes recorded by indigenous oil and gas companies such as First E&P, Seplat, etc. However, the real game changer lies in creating and implementing cost-effective strategies to fully monetise gas and data-driven exploration for low-sulphur-content hydrocarbons, particularly within the undiscovered vertical and areal sections of the Niger Delta sedimentary basin. Recent technological advancements in the energy sector have birthed generative AI-driven tools, which reduce exploration prospect maturation cycle times and rank prospects using defined parameters for portfolio optimisation.
Subsurface measurement and characterisation tools have also continuously evolved over time and now offer higher computing power with simpler, user-friendly graphic interfaces and strong data integration capabilities, leading to increased productivity and decision-making in Nigeria and the global energy industry. Data science has enabled the use of Python scripts and Power BI dashboards to simplify workflows and improve collaboration and communication of key parameters and metrics across teams. Microsoft’s Copilot has also improved communication and the time required to summarise meeting outcomes and align on business decisions. The key enabler for future growth, however, lies in data integration from agile tools, competency development, and strategic staffing of well-groomed professionals within companies.
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Finally, young professionals and students in Nigeria need to acquire strong petrotechnical, data science, and soft skills and build their resumes by learning new tools outside of the conventional classroom environment. They must stay closely plugged into the global energy industry through conferences, journals, op-eds, and technical sessions. They should also have a deep understanding of industry trends and needs while being flexible and agile. Finally, more focused training and technology partnerships should be encouraged between Nigeria and other major oil and gas producing countries.
Chukwuma Atuanya is a senior earth scientist (petroleum geologist) and project manager with close to 20 years of oil and gas industry experience working in one of the world’s largest energy companies. He specialises in the development, implementation, and deployment of cutting-edge exploration and production subsurface measurement, detection, and modelling techniques, technologies, and tools. The article does not reflect the views and opinions of BusinessDay or his current employer. Email: chutwice@yahoo.com
