Oil and gas companies in Nigeria are paying the highest “country premium” of all the major oil and gas production centres as they attempt to meet growing demands for senior staff, according to executive search firm The Curzon Partnership
Many senior oil and gas staff in Nigeria receive a supplementary country premium worth 45 per cent of their base pay, taking their total pay to more than US$460,000 per annum — more than senior oil and gas employees working in Libya and Kurdistan.
The Curzon Partnership said that oil and gas companies working in frontier markets will often offer a “significant country premium” to employees to reflect the disruption their lifestyles will have working in the country.
Helen Di Mauro, partner at The Curzon Partnership, remarked, “Attracting high-quality senior ranking managers and technical talent to frontier markets is one of the major challenges facing oil and gas businesses.
“The growth in exploration and production across frontier markets over the last 15 years has created a global fight for talent among oil and gas businesses.
“Frontier markets pay an additional country premium as it is harder for expats, especially with a family, to achieve the same lifestyle in Nigeria or Mongolia that they have been used to in the US or UK,” she noted.
Di Mauro pointed out that the country premium in some markets can be so high that some general managers working overseas can earn more in a year than their company CEO based in the UK or USA would.
The Curzon Partnership reported that the booming nature of Nigeria’s oil market has generated a lot of demand for senior talent.
“Whilst Lagos is an exciting and well-established place to work for expats, oil and gas companies recognise that the incentives have to be high because life as an expat in Nigeria is so different from countries with broader industries and higher standards of living,” said Di Mauro.
Expats working in Egypt’s and Libya’s oil sectors benefit from an additional 30 per cent country premium, reported The Curzon Partnership.
“This is not as high as their peers in Nigeria because there is a more established expat community in the case of Egypt and lower demand for senior staff in the case of Libya,” remarked Di Mauro
“Egypt has been producing hydrocarbons for several generations so there is a much larger supply of experienced Egyptian managers, and a more family-friendly location in terms of schooling. This means that permanent pay for executives is lower there than in neighbouring Libya where the industry and support infrastructure is less mature,” she added.
