Nigeria's oil and gas industry is still the most popular career field for job seekers in the country, though a lack of adequately skilled workers mean that many positions are filled by overseas applicants, studies show.

New research in the sector has found that it continues to boast the highest average wages, beating the burgeoning telecommunications and banking industries, with this leading to a surge in competition for jobs both on the engineering and service side.

However, while there are estimated to be around 15,000 vacant oil and gas industry positions in the African country at present, many of these will end up being filled by overseas employees of multinational companies due to a relative lack of training available for Nigerian nationals, though this situation is currently being redressed.

Dr. Chudi Egbunike, "In the oil and gas industry, certification and international trainings for specialisation are required, since most of the openings or vacancies in the oil and gas or even its service sector are specialised and require professional exposure and trainings that are unavailable in the country.

"The implication of these deficiencies in knowledge, training and exposure, is that ordinary non-graduates foreigners, including technicians from far away places like India, China, the Philippines, Lebanon and the likes, have taken over these positions; and they are then referred to as expatriates."