Stakeholders lament skewed expatriate quota in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector

Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

A group, under the auspices of Concerned Stakeholders in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry, has raised an alarm over the paucity of jobs for indigenous contractors in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, warning that it has led to unemployment.

The group further insisted that the situation, which has greatly affected the economy, is capable of subverting all the progress the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has recorded in the economic sector of the country.

Speaking at an interactive forum with newsmen over the weekend in Abuja, the spokespersons for the group, Zaharadeen Ahmed and Kingsley Okoro, lamented that lots of the oil multinationals like Shell, Chevron and Halliburton had placed many of their projects on hold for undisclosed reasons.

They deplored the drought in engineering, procurement, construction and onshore commissioning (EPC) contracts, which are key areas for indigenous/local contractors in the sector.

“New contracts for Tank Fabrication, Pipeline laying and other locally-executed contracts which  form the nucleus of the local economy has not been negotiated or awarded for a while just as the ones previously awarded but not concluded have been placed on hold,” they lamented.

The group further disclosed that “local contractors have been unable to meet their financial and other commitments thereby leading to massive staff layoff in the sector which is frustrating the development of the oil and gas sector of the economy and the oil-producing areas.”

They appealed for the IOCs to create partnerships with local contractors to develop programmes for indigenous contractors to train and engage the oil and gas workforce of the country especially at times of reduced contracts in the sector.

According to them, “stop-start contracts, a situation like we have now, will keep the contractors uncompetitive, thus hindering them from reaching their full potential.

“However, with a planned contracts management system without interruptions contractors would be able to have a more sustainable investment model and we can be more competitive and economical in our market,” they stated.

They further appealed to the Federal Government for cooperation to ensure availability of jobs for the local contractors, especially those  that had demonstrated competence in challenging jobs.