Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) on Monday in Lagos called on engineers in the country’s oil and gas sector to continuously strive to acquire and demonstrate cutting-edge competence, which would enable Nigeria fully harness the vast natural resources and grow the nation’s economy.

Speaking at the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Young Professionals Workshop in Lagos, NLNG's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Tony Attah remarked that the country’s oil and gas industry had been pivotal to the nation’s economic wins in the past five decades and still remains so till date, stressing the need for competent professionals who would sustain and develop the sector.

“It therefore becomes imperative for the Society of Petroleum Engineers and similar professional associations to stimulate the availability of enabling facilities to nurture and grow the professionals and the technology which will deliver the dividends from the sector to the nation’s economy,” he said.

“In view of this urgent need to support the development of world-class training structure for engineers, Nigeria LNG Limited spearheaded the improvement of the study of engineering in Nigeria’s top federal universities in the six geo-political zones of the country through its University Support Programme (USP) through which we recently donated buildings and equipment with a total value of $12 million.

“Under the programme, Nigeria LNG built and equipped six engineering research laboratories in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Ilorin, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Ibadan, University of Port Harcourt and University of Maiduguri,” he added.

Expatiating on NLNG’s contribution to the development of human capital in the industry,Attahstated that NLNG also provides technical training for young Nigerians in the Bonny Vocational Centre situated on Bonny Island.

He said: “The NLNG vocational centre has trained over a thousand Nigerians in related occupational areas such as electrical installation, fabrication, welding and pipeline work, mechanical fitting, building construction, ICT system support and many others. Our focus is to sustain the development of skilled manpower to support the technical field.”

He said professional associations like SPE should promote efforts to develop competence at all fronts, whether through the public sector or the private sector, to support a thriving oil and gas sector as well as to overall economic development.

NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC (49 percent), Shell Gas BV, SGBV, (25.6 percent), Total LNG Nigeria Limited (15 percent), and Eni International (N.A,) N. V. S. a. r. l (10.4 percent).