Workers in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector are the second highest paid in Africa after South African counterparts, and 26th in the world, with an average annual salary of $55,100 (N8.717 million), according to a new survey Oil and Gas Global Salary Guide 2013.
The survey by Hays, global recruitment firm, shows that expatriate workers in the Nigerian oil and gas sector are the highest paid in Africa and rank 11th on the list of the most paid in the world, with an average annual salary of $140,800 (N22.275 million).
The survey also reveals that South Africa’s local workers in the country’s oil and gas sector are the highest paid in Africa, with an annual average salary of $75,300 (N11.912 million).
Australian workers are the world’s best paid, pocketing an average of $163,600 (N25.881million). Norway is the second most expensive country to hire local workers, with an average annual salary of $152,600 (N24.141million) needed for recruitment, Hays said. New Zealand ranks third with a median pay packet of $127,600 (N20.186 million), followed by Netherlands and Canada.
Australia and Norway have limited skilled labour pools and significant workloads, the result is very high pay rates, although both would appear to have met some sort of ceiling, reckons Hays.
The survey sampled eight African countries. Angola’s local oil workers were the third highest paid workers in Africa with an annual average salary of $53,700 (N8.495 million), followed by Algerian workers with an annual average salary of $45,200 (N7.150 million) and Libya, with average annual salary of $42,200 (N6.676 million).
Others are Egypt, with average annual salary of $41,900 (N6.628 million); Ghana, with average salary of $40,500 (N6.407 million) per annum, while Sudan trailed with $31,100 (N4.920 million) average annual salary.
The survey was based on the responses of 25,000 people working in the oil and gas industry across 53 countries.
Hays noted that 2012 saw increases for most countries as the global energy industry remained buoyant.
“2012 was a good year for many in the oil and gas world with an increase in salaries, benefits and conditions. The same cannot be said for too many other industries and it would not be stretching the truth to state that more wealth has been created in the oil and gas industry than any other over the last 12 months With nearly every country around the world striving to secure its own energy future, either through exploration, increased production or developing infrastructure, demand for the oil and gas professional, in all its guises, was most definitely high.
“Our headline figure for the average base salary has once again grown to now sit at $87,300, showing an 8.5 per cent increase on the previous year. Such an increase now accounts for a 14 per cent rise in base salary in two years alone.
“That is significant for an industry employing some five million people worldwide. There were numerous developments contributing to this rise through 2012, not least of which was a proliferation of non-conventional field developments. This was seen by many nations as the route to energy independence and saw a wave of hiring. Indeed many countries eagerly embarked on this path only to discover that the skills didn’t exist, at least not in their own country.
“However, taking a closer look at the market this is clearly a reflection of their quest to become self reliant on energy in the future driving exploration and infrastructure development, than any immediate increase in domestic energy demand.
“Other countries showing big increases include Iraq, Nigeria, Thailand and Argentina. The first two reflect significant project demand; Argentina is playing catch-up on the previous year’s sluggish growth; and Thailand is increasingly home to many oil and gas professionals on rotation on offshore facilities in South East Asia or North Western Australia,” the report said.
FEMI ASU
