that the broader impact of the Iran conflict on tourism and remittances, previously projected by the bank, had not materialised, as the conflict has remained largely contained. Remittances remained historically high throughout FY2026, with estimates that it would mount to $46 billion in FY2026, up from $36 billion in FY2025. This encouraged the bank to raise its FY2027 forecast to $43 billion.
The note, aiming to shed light on the key lessons about the Egyptian economy since the bank’s last review five months ago, said Egypt’s stronger remittances, lower oil-price assumptions, and improving Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) prospects have made its fiscal year 2027 external financing outlook more manageable across three different scenarios for global oil prices.
Morgan Stanley’s first scenario presents the best case for Egypt, assuming regional tensions ease, the Strait of Hormuz reopens, and oil production normalizes. Strong US exports and weaker Chinese imports would create a supply glut, pushing Brent to $65 per barrel in late 2026 and $60 Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) has signed a formal manifesto committing regulators, and other players in the Nigerian oil and gas industry to time-bound actions aimed at addressing the human capital gap in the sector.
OGTAN president, Chris Osarunmwense disclosed this while presenting the manifesto at the closing plenary and signing ceremony of the OGTAN Human Capacity Development (HCD) Conference 2026 in Warri, Delta State, on Friday.
Osarunmwense said the decision to produce a binding manifesto, rather than a conventional communiqué, was driven by the industry’s frustration with conferences that generate discussions without corresponding follow-through.
Accordung to Osarunmwense, “Rather than turning this conference into another regular talk shop — one of these jamborees where we just tick the boxes — we decided to make this different.
“We are producing a set of concrete actions, a roadmap that defines how we can accelerate human capital development within the oil and gas industry, such that companies operating within it have people who are prepared and ready to meet the terms of having the requisite knowledge, skills and the right attitude,” he said.
The OGTAN president said the manifesto represented “a collective pledge” from stakeholders who participated in the conference’s panel sessions and keynotes.
He added that human capital development “must move beyond compliance and training activity to measurable competence, performance, productivity, and industry outcomes” as the industry undergoes rapid changes driven by digitisation, artificial intelligence, automation, cybersecurity, gas development and the energy transition.
The manifesto contains eight pillars of action. Under the first pillar, covering regulatory compliance under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) committed to continuing its support for Nigerian content development and indigenous participation.
Operators committed to treating HCD as a strategic component of business as a compliance requirement, while OGTAN committed to strengthening compliance with training standards through grading and independent audits.
The second pillar focuses on identifying the skills and competencies required by the industry.
Also, regulators committed to working with industry to establish clearer visibility of required workforce competencies, which Osarunmwense said was necessary to guide training providers.
Without such visibility, he said, training providers were often left “throwing a stone in the dark and hoping you’ll hit the target.”
Operators, led by the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), committed to formally communicating the specific skills and competencies required by the industry, including roles at risk from automation, while formalising collaboration with OGTAN through a Memorandum of Understanding.
Training providers, in turn, committed to designing programmes based on “a structured and scientific skillsidentification process” rather The third pillar addresses the technical skills gap through a national skills-gap pathway.
Operators committed to identifying critical skills exposed to workforce exits, while stakeholders also addressed the loss of institutional knowledge as experienced professionals leave the sector.
Osarunmwense said the industry was experiencing “a huge outflow of experienced professionals” without adequate systems for capturing their expertise, adding that stakeholders had committed to documenting critical knowledge ahead of their departure.
Training providers committed to measuring demonstrated competency rather than training activity alone.
The fourth pillar focuses on energy transition and gas readiness, with operators committing to preparing workers across technical, digital, commercial and human frontiers.
These include renewables, gas-to-power and methane management; artificial intelligence and digital tools; energy economics, carbon markets and ESG reporting; as well as adaptive leadership and systems thinking.
