Moving Beyond ‘Talk Shops’: OGTAN Launches 8-Pillar Action Plan for Impact
… as OPTS, academia, training providers, others commit to OGTAN’s HCD manifesto
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) has signed a formal Manifesto at the end of the OGTAN Human Capacity Development (HCD) Conference 2026, committing regulators, operators, training providers and academia to measurable, time-bound actions aimed at closing Nigeria’s oil and gas human capital gap.
Chris Osarunmwense, President of OGTAN, disclosed this while presenting the Manifesto at the closing plenary and signing ceremony, which brought the three-day conference and expo to a close in Warri, Delta State, on Friday.
Osarunmwense said the decision to produce a binding Manifesto, rather than a conventional communiqué, was a direct response to long-standing industry frustration with conferences that generate discussion but little follow-through.
“Rather than turning this conference into another regular talk shop — one of these jamborees where we just tick the boxes — we decided to make this different,” he said.
“We are producing a set of concrete actions, a roadmap that defines how we can accelerate human capital development within the oil and gas industry, such that companies operating within it have people who are prepared and ready to meet the challenges of their business, in terms of having the requisite knowledge, skills and the right attitude.”
The Manifesto, he said, represents “a collective pledge” from stakeholders across the week’s panel sessions and keynotes.
He affirmed that human capital development “must move beyond compliance and training activity to measurable competence, performance, productivity, and industry outcomes” amid rapid industry change driven by digitisation, AI, automation, cybersecurity, gas development and energy transition. It commits regulators, operators, training providers and academia to eight pillars of action.
Under the first pillar, on regulatory compliance under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 and the NOGICD Act, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) committed to continuing its support for Nigerian content development and indigenous participation.
Operators committed to treating HCD as a strategic component of business execution rather than solely a compliance requirement, while OGTAN committed to strengthening compliance with training standards through its own grading and independent audits.
The second pillar addresses what Osarunmwense called a long-standing blind spot: the absence of clear signals on what skills are actually needed. Regulators committed to working with industry to establish clearer visibility of required workforce competencies — without which, he said, training providers are often left “throwing a stone in the dark and hoping you’ll hit the target.”
Operators, led by the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), committed to formally communicating the specific skills and competencies the industry needs, including roles at risk from automation, and to formalising collaboration with OGTAN through a Memorandum of Understanding.
Training providers committed to designing programmes guided by what Osarunmwense called “a structured and scientific skills-identification process,” rather than generic curricula.
The third pillar tackles the technical skills gap, with stakeholders committing to a national skills-gap pathway.
Operators committed to identifying critical skills exposed to workforce exits, while industry addressed the loss of institutional knowledge as experienced professionals leave the sector.
Osarunmwense noted the industry is experiencing “a huge outflow of experienced professionals” without adequate systems to capture their expertise, and committed to documenting critical knowledge ahead of departures.
Training providers committed to measuring demonstrated competency rather than mere training activity.
Energy transition and gas readiness form the fourth pillar, under which operators committed to preparing the workforce across four frontiers: technical (renewables, gas-to-power, methane management), digital (AI and digital tools), commercial (energy economics, carbon markets, ESG reporting), and human (adaptive leadership, systems thinking).
The pillar also addresses Nigeria’s CNG infrastructure expansion from roughly seven to 350 refuelling centres nationwide, with stakeholders committing to build the capacity needed to support that growth.
The fifth pillar covers trainer standards, certification and the Accredited Training Service Provider (ATSP) framework. OGTAN committed to rolling out a formal training-of-trainers programme within a defined timeframe, alongside grading, third-party audits, and trainer currency systems to keep members up to date on evolving industry practice and technology.
On funding and co-investment, the sixth pillar, Osarunmwense said the Federal Government committed to prioritising proper utilisation of HCD funding for the remainder of the current ministerial tenure.
The Manifesto also promotes a co-investment model spanning government, industry, academia and technology partners, and recognises operators as the industry’s most significant existing HCD funders. A proposal to identify 50 African training entities for targeted support remains subject to formal OGTAN adoption.
The seventh pillar commits regulators and operators to strengthening indigenous Nigerian training capacity, enabling local trainers to meet international standards.
The final pillar focuses on young professionals, host communities and inclusion — apprenticeships, graduate development, mentorship, and inclusive HCD participation for host communities.
Osarunmwense further announced OGTAN will lead a new Training Managers Forum, bringing training managers from upstream companies together quarterly to coordinate HCD issues industry-wide.
“We are at the stage of looking at HCD not just from a company perspective, but as a whole, from an industry perspective,” he said.
He added that the forum had been planned for launch during the conference but would now be finalised afterward, since “the process did not go as smoothly as we would have loved.”
Osarunmwense stressed that accountability is built into the Manifesto’s design, with each commitment assigned a responsible actor, measurable output, timeframe and verification route, to be reviewed periodically through OGTAN’s HCD governance mechanism.
