OGTAN President Pledges Stronger Human Capital Growth for Nigerian Oil & Gas
CHIGOZIE AMADI
At OGTAN, therefore, we treasure the potential of people who have developed human capital in nature, to effectively operate within the oil and gas industry.
“It is my pleasure, on behalf of OGTAN, to warmly welcome you to this special conference networking event — and, most importantly, to the OGTAN Human Capital Development Conference and Exhibition 2026.
This is the first in a series of sessions in the conversation around how we sustain and develop the workforce that will effectively deliver on the promises of the oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.
It is the moment when we pause from our respective organizations, businesses, institutions, and professional responsibilities, and come together as one community with a shared interest: the people who power Nigeria’s energy industry, and the capabilities required to take the industry into the future.
Earlier today, we also had the opportunity to bring together many of our colleagues and friends to interest and play together during the HCD Golf Tournament.
Golf, interestingly, is a fitting metaphor for human capital development.
It requires preparation, discipline, concentration, patience, strategy, and continuous improvement.
Success does not come from one perfect shot; it comes from consistently making the right decisions, learning from mistakes, and improving on them again.
I therefore congratulate all participants, and particularly the winners of today’s tournament. Your achievements will be formally recognized this evening.
But I believe everyone who participated is a winner, because you have contributed to strengthening the relationships and the community that underpin this conference. Congratulations to all our winners.
So the question is: why Warri? It is important to explain why we chose Warri over other locations — Lagos and Abuja — as the venue for this year’s conference.
For us, this choice was meaningful. Warri is not simply a venue; it is part of the history of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
The Niger Delta has, for decades, been at the heart of Nigeria’s petroleum industry.
The history of petroleum exploration, production, processing, services, technical manpower, and community development in this region is deeply intertwined with the broader story of Nigeria’s energy economy.
Warri, in particular, represents an important intersection of industry, technical capability, communities, institutions, and human capital.
We therefore believe it is appropriate to bring international conversations about the future of oil and gas human capital development to a location that is itself embedded in the history and reality of the industry.
And there is another reason. We want this 2026 conference to move beyond the traditional conference venues and settings of Abuja and Lagos.
We want to take the conversation to where the industry lives and works.
We want our colleagues, partners, and international guests to experience Nigeria not merely as a geographical location associated with petroleum production, but as a region of talent, enterprise, technical expertise, institutions, communities, and enormous human capital potential.
And, of course, we are particularly pleased to be hosting this conference in collaboration with the Petroleum Training Institute, one of Nigeria’s foremost institutions for technical and professional training in the petroleum sector.
This makes Warri a fitting and particularly appropriate city for a conference focused on human capital development.
There could hardly be a more suitable environment for international conversations about developing the people who will power Nigeria’s clean energy future.
Tonight also reminds us that relationships are an essential component of human capital development.
The challenges before the industry are too complex for any single organization to solve. Government alone cannot solve it. Regulators cannot solve it alone.
Oil and gas companies cannot solve it alone.
Training providers cannot solve it alone. Universities and technical institutions cannot do so alone either.
We need colloboration across the value chain.
I encourage everyone here to use these two days not only to listen, but to reconnect and connect — meet someone you have never met before, explore a partnership, share an idea, identify competency gaps, discuss training solutions, and find an opportunity for collaboration.
Sometimes the most important outcome of a conference is not what happens on the podium; it is what happens between people after the formal sessions.
On behalf of OCTAN, I sincerely appreciate our partners, sponsors, speakers, panelists, educators, members, and all the organizations that have supported this conference.
