Operators in Nigeria’s petroleum industry have called for wider adoption of emerging technologies and greater investment in human capital, saying both are essential to improving operational efficiency, boosting productivity and supporting growth in the country’s oil and gas sector.
The stakeholders made the call during a panel session at the just-concluded Nigeria Oil and Gas conference titled “Driving Energy Innovation: Technology-Powered Pathways for Oil and Gas.”
Chairman of Oilserv Group, Emeka Okwuosa, represented by the company’s Group Business Development and Commercial Manager, Cheta Okwuosa, said engineering, procurement and construction companies should embrace technologies that improve speed, safety and sustainability.
“The industry needs to address speed, safety, and sustainability. If technology must be viable for the EPC companies, it must address all these. It’s people-driven, and we need to be deliberate as well as intentional in growing human resources by building local or indigenous personnel to operate these technologies,” he said.
Okwuosa explained that Oilserv had progressively adopted automation in its operations, moving from manual processes to semi-automatic systems before deploying more advanced technologies on major gas pipeline projects.
“In our operations, we started with manual, and then at some point we deployed the automatic system, which we started with the semi-automatic. Later on, the company mastered it and deployed it in the OB3 project. With that, the company realized some gains, but not the optimum.
“In AKK, we used a combination of the two, the semi-automatic and the fully automatic system. And the gains were something else. Now, in the algorithm that plays the semi-automatic and the fully automatic, that is where the AI comes into play.
“Now that we are veering into gas commercialisation, we have also deployed leak detection, intrusion detection, and other AI operational systems. Technologies that help you to, you know, clone what you have on the ground and be able to monitor it remotely. So that’s it,” he added.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of GIL Group, Gbolahan Lawal, urged operators to adopt data-driven innovations alongside emerging technologies to improve industry performance.
He challenged industry players to “evaluate what has worked with the analogue system of operations and replace it with the new technologies. There is also a need for training and empowerment to create a roadmap for profitability in the industry.”
Lead Strategic Consultant at Acepontis Ltd, Atiemoria Ebhodaghe, said adoption of new technologies among marine logistics operators in the upstream oil sector remained uneven.
“On one hand, International Oil Companies and leading vessel owners are jumping on board with advanced technologies like Dynamic Positioning (DP) systems, remote data exchange for vessels, and automated fuel optimisation. They recognise that offshore support vessels operate in high-risk settings where any downtime can be very costly. On the flip side, smaller indigenous operators find it tough to adopt these technologies, mainly due to financial constraints.
“For them, investing in sensor-based technology or satellite monitoring often feels more like a luxury than a necessity for their operations. This creates a two-tier market: the technologically savvy fleets land the lucrative, long-term offshore contracts, while the older ‘legacy’ vessels are left to compete in the spot market, grappling with inefficiencies and higher operational costs,” he said.
Ebhodaghe added that artificial intelligence and other digital technologies were changing how vessels are managed in the upstream marine sector by enabling operators to predict equipment failures before they occur.
“In the upstream marine sector, AI and new technologies are transforming vessel management from a reactive approach to a more predictive one. Take AI-driven predictive maintenance, for instance; it allows operators of Anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) vessels and crew boats to foresee engine or thruster issues well before they result in a breakdown during operations.
“The key measure of this impact is the decrease in ‘off-hire’ days during project delivery. Keeping vessels operational and compliant is crucial to ensuring that multi-million-dollar offshore drilling and production timelines stay on track,” he said.
SOURCE: PUNCH NEWS PAPER
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