The oil and gas industry is at a time when sustaining the license-to-operate; maintaining a positive reputation amongst stakeholders as well as achieving competitive performance is at the heart of business objective. This period also coincides with an all-time high entrance of young technical professionals into the industry due to an accelerated reaction to the impending crew change. Recent catastrophic process safety related incidents which resulted in fatalities, reputational damage and financial loss to the industry have once again brought to the forefront the importance of Process Safety management to industry leadership. Historically, the industry builds on long established focus on personal safety. In this regard, several organisations have developed Process Safety capability frameworks and terms of reference. Efforts have also been made to align these as much as possible to existing Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) critical competencies. “A process safety risk is a hazard that can give rise to major accidents involving the release of potentially hazardous materials, release of energy, or both; and Process safety in Wells is about keeping all hydrocarbons safely in the pipe, well or reservoir at all times” – Shell. Demographic shift in the oil and gas industry is emerging as one of the most significant challenges to business continuity and sustainability in the face of a rapidly aging workforce and shortfall in skilled and experienced manpower. The need for a well-knit strategy to enhance the training and competency development of young technical professionals becomes imperative in order to ensure that Process Safety oriented culture is fully understood and imbibed. This paper will examine how process safety can be successfully managed with the ‘big crew change’.

In the last decade, the volatility in the price of oil and gas have caused the industry to seek innovative ways of delivering profitable projects. This has been further challenged by safety and security risks and other considerations such as societal and political demands for an accelerated transition to a net-zero energy system. These complexities increasingly challenge energy companies to find ways of delivering projects within acceptable Value Investment Ratio (VIR), thus requiring that all components of the capital and operating expenditure are cost efficient. According to EIA 2016 report, drilling and completions cost (including tangible and intangible costs) account for 60 – 80% of the total well cost across the onshore and offshore plays. Most well projects in onshore and shallow offshore fields in Nigeria are in remote and challenging environments with most equipment sourced abroad. Therefore, deploying innovative approaches to managing supply chain risks and aligning these with the overarching business objective is critical to achieving the desired value for both the operator and supplier. This paper describes how the Operator developed its Outcome Based Contracting (OBC) model for Drilling and Completions Services as a fundamental lever in its Supply Chain transformation journey; highlighting the technical and commercial value realised in terms of capital efficiency and cost competitiveness both to the operator and supplier. OBC is a contracting model where the Operator pays the supplier for the outcome agreed and not the activities leading to the outcome. This approach inherently drives competitiveness as both parties partner to provide enablers in project scoping, technology and innovation as well as related supply chain strategies towards realistic and achievable outcomes. It is expected that this will contribute to the body of knowledge and adopted by other operators to improve their contracting process for maximum benefits to all parties.

Growing the African Oil and Gas industry requires a highly skilled and talented workforce for improved innovation and sustainability. With the increased job mobility and migration of the male workforce, it is imperative that the industry considers the emerging dynamics and seek other avenues for growing and securing local talent pool. The current workforce in the oil and gas industry is predominantly male with a sprinkling of females in the existing talent and skill pool and even fewer opportunities for females in leadership roles. Diversity and inclusion initiative has recently helped to encourage policies that promote some considerations for the female workforce. However, there is still more work to be done. This paper sets out a discourse on the issues, challenges and prospects for the oil and gas industry in Africa with primary focus on policies that identify and adequately utilize the skills and talents of the female workforce; maximizing their ingenuity in knowledge management and capacity building for the advancement and sustainability of the sector. The exposition will recommend insightful roadmap towards ensuring consistent retention and improvement of the knowledge base in the industry as well as means and ways of attracting qualified and talented females.