{"id":77363,"date":"2025-09-15T15:27:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=77363"},"modified":"2025-09-15T15:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:31:16","slug":"the-importance-of-mining-facts-and-data-in-nigerias-oil-and-gas-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2025\/09\/15\/the-importance-of-mining-facts-and-data-in-nigerias-oil-and-gas-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of \u2018mining\u2019 facts and data in Nigeria\u2019s oil and gas arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The oil and gas sector in Nigeria is under increasing pressure to integrate IT and OT systems to boost efficiencies, support growth and enhance decision-making. Gary Chomse, Regional Director, Central-Southern Africa at Vertiv, tells us how digital infrastructure solutions, from critical power and thermal management to prefabricated data centres, can enable IT-OT convergence and support the sector\u2019s strategic objectives<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As with all modern industries, the oil and gas sector globally is under pressure to embrace the critical convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems to maximise efficiencies and productivities. This shift is equally important in Nigeria, where the oil and gas industry plays a pivotal role in the national economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil production is a major source of income and a substantial contributor to the GDP of many African countries, and Nigeria remains consistently in the top spot as Africa\u2019s largest producer of crude oil. In addition, it possesses significant quantities of natural gas reserves. The country\u2019s oil and gas sector is critical to the economy, contributing over 85% of export earnings and approximately 30% of budget revenue, but it has been performing below its potential in recent years due to a number of challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against this background, the newly operational Dangote Refinery in the Lekki Free Zone outside Lagos, which began production in January 2024, is a positive symbol of the hoped-for revival of the oil and gas arena in Nigeria. This newest addition to Nigeria\u2019s oil and gas industry is Africa\u2019s biggest oil refinery and also the largest single-train facility in the world (meaning a facility where all the major processing units for the crude oil entering the refinery are contained within a single integrated complex).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite the positive symbolism of this beacon within the Nigerian oil and gas realm, the sector is still navigating through the complex regulatory landscape and fiscal reforms introduced by the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021. The Act\u2019s intention is to restructure fiscal terms, institutional frameworks and regulatory policies, and thus attract investment and boost efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the implementation of this Act, Nigeria\u2019s oil and gas arena had seen years of under-investment in exploration and production which, together with persistent infrastructure issues and other challenges, had suppressed growth and innovation, as outlined by Nigerian credit rating agency Agusto & Co.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implementation of effective technology infrastructure in the oil and gas field can help support strategic business and national objectives and assist in overcoming legacy infrastructure challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting key African markets in their digitisation journeys<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few years, Vertiv has participated in several focused events across Africa to showcase our products and solutions that are suitable for the broader industrial realm. The intention was to create greater awareness around the benefits that Vertiv can bring to these local sectors, following on from our proven success within the oil and gas field in other parts of the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We look forward to similarly engaging with industry representatives within Nigeria also, being Africa\u2019s largest oil producer, as well as possessing substantial natural gas reserves. Nigeria\u2019s natural gas reserves are, in fact, estimated to be one of the largest in Africa, as outlined by global research company, Mordor Intelligence, in its report entitled Oil and Gas Industry in Nigeria Market Size & Share Analysis – Growth Trends & Forecasts (2025 – 2030).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natural gas is considered a cleaner and more environmentally friendly source of energy compared to other fossil fuels, and investments in natural gas infrastructure would allow Nigeria to diversify its energy mix and meet both domestic and international demand for cleaner energy sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Mordor Intelligence report, it appears that, considering the issues holistically and despite certain challenges, there is much to anticipate for the growth of Nigeria\u2019s oil and gas industry over the next few years. One important key is enabling the true convergence of IT and OT systems, to be able to \u2018mine\u2019 facts and data as well as oil and gas, and thereby drive informed planning and decision making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of integrating IT and OT systems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a challenging global economy, it is critical for oil and gas companies to digitise their systems and processes, thereby allowing for the harnessing of data volumes from day-to-day operations. As outlined by global IT consulting company BirlaSoft, the IT-OT convergence within the oil and gas sector allows companies to harvest data within the OT layer and then \u2018cross-contextualise it to build valuable insights and automated control and orchestration mechanisms\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to BirlaSoft: \u2018IO\/OT convergence in the oil and gas industry is a key step to harnessing the business benefits of Big Data. Operational technology generates a vast amount of data when IoT sensors are attached to various parts of critical machinery to record intended parameters. This data is usually in the form of time series. Analysing it with the right AI and Machine Learning (ML) techniques can help organisations anticipate potential risks or if the operations as a whole are generating a strange footprint. In other words, IT-OT convergence is the bridge to seamless, proactive, and resilient oil and gas operations.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By maximising a mix of more modern IT systems intertwined with legacy OT systems, and capturing important information, oil and gas companies can derive insight for enhancing operational efficiencies, increasing performance and improving decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To enable such strategic aims around the necessary digitisation to link IT and OT systems, Vertiv\u2019s digital infrastructure solutions are designed to assist with power supplies and distribution, as well as thermal management solutions, as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Critical power products, such as efficient, reliable uninterruptible power supplies (UPS); scalable, flexible hybrid DC power products; power distribution systems; switchgear; and Vertiv\u2019s battery energy storage system (BESS), which delivers scalable, high-capacity battery energy storage systems for data centres and critical infrastructure<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Thermal management solutions, including Vertiv air handling and chillers for climate control of large electronic systems located outside the data room; cooling solutions for data centres, IT rooms, laboratories and other critical applications; as well as small thermal systems, incorporating room and row\/rack cooling<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Vertiv Integrated Solutions, including prefabricated rack, row, aisle and modular data centres, featuring built-in flexible designs based on proven configurations<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Monitoring and management options, such as Vertiv Avocent DSView solution, a family of IT management devices and software that provides solutions in edge, enterprise and engineering lab environments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    There is a well-known saying which notes that \u2018knowledge is power\u2019, and in any industry, information is vital for understanding that sector\u2019s own outlook through the harnessing of facts, statistics and trends. With the oil and gas industry in Nigeria poised for robust growth that will be driven by strategic investments and technological advancements, the importance of being able to access information digitally is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The strategically placed implementation of robust yet high-performance data centres will work to form the backbone for this critical data and support the necessary IT-OT convergence of individual oil and gas companies, while at the same time also supporting the overall aims of the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021 at a national level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The oil and gas sector in Nigeria is under increasing pressure to integrate IT and OT systems to boost efficiencies, support growth and enhance decision-making. Gary Chomse, Regional Director, Central-Southern Africa at Vertiv, tells us how digital infrastructure solutions, from critical power and thermal management to prefabricated data centres, can enable IT-OT convergence and support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":77364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16131,17681,16189,46,900,18320,54,18647,13],"tags":[41,1673,983,18979,18977,18976,685,903,18978,2686],"class_list":["post-77363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-ai","category-data","category-data-centres","category-energy","category-innovation","category-research","category-technology","category-top-stories","tag-data-centres-2","tag-digital-infrastructure","tag-digitisation","tag-energy-transition","tag-it-ot-convergence","tag-natural-gas","tag-nigeria","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-petroleum-industry-act","tag-vertiv"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77367,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77363\/revisions\/77367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}