The Oil & Gas sector is Nigeria's most important economic sector. It accounts for over 90 percent of her foreign exchange serings and more than70 percent of her revenues. This is likely to continue far into the 21st century. It is therefore apparent that Understanding the Oil and Gas Industry: A Development Perspective, is crucial at this time, to equip the citizenry to follow and monitor how the government manages the nation's hydrocarbon resources.Exploration for oil and gas in Nigeria started at the turn of the 20th Century, through the efforts of the German Bitumen Company. However, the efforts by Shell, which eventually discovered commercial crude oil in Nigeria, started in 1937 when it operated and traded as Shell D'Arcy. But it was not until 1956 that commercial oil was discovered in Oloibiri in the present day Bayelsa State and a production of about 5,000 barrels per day started in 1958. Thereafter, other oil companies like Gulf, Chevron, Mobil, Texaco, et cetera, came into the race.Today Nigeria can boast of over 2.5million barrels per day of production capacity with a reserve base of over 40 billion barrels of crude oil and over 180 trillion cubic feet of gas.The Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, from where all the oil and gas are produced at the moment, has some of the most challenging and diversified terrains in the world - covering dry land, galloping swamp, swamp, shallow waters, offshore and deep/ultra deep offshore.[0:41 pm, 20/03/2023] BADE TECHNOLOGIES.: The author believes that Nigerians should be encouraged to understand the workings of the oil industry so that they can either participate directly or be informed enough to assess government's husbanding of the nation's hydrocarbon resources. The author's desire to make this happen is borne out of his background as Petroleum and Mining Engineer as well as the experiences and first hand situations he encountered during his career in Shell and the Niger Delta Development Commission, two major institutions in Nigeria which fully exposed him to all aspects of the oil and gas business. The experience gained have therefore given birth to this book.The rich and meticulously presented content also makes this book very useful as research material and text for undergraduate and graduate students in petroleum related studies.It may be worthy of note to identify some very salient issues raised in the book, like gas production and making full use of the resource for which' Nigeria is notorious as one of the leading gas flaring nations in the world. There is therefore an urgent need to stem this huge loss of resources through gas utilization processes and major projects like LNG plants and power generation that will use natural gas as feedstock.The Chapter on pipeline operations proffers some solutions to the alarming rate of pipeline vandalism through such strategies as community based pipeline surveillance schemes.[0:42 pm, 20/03/2023] BADE TECHNOLOGIES.: As the government prepares to review the fiscal regimes in the industry, the book also analyses the strengths of the Joint Ventures with the International Oil Companies (IOCs), and the MOUs under which they operate. National policies, fiscal arrangements and legal frameworks in which the Nigerian oil industry operates, as well as alternative arrangements to the cash call funding structure have also been analyzed.Another chapter dwells on the traditional business opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and gives the comfort that the industry offers numerous opportunities for employment and business both upstream and downstream.Not to be missed in this book is the interesting analyses of public and private sector initiatives in the provision of employment in the industry. It identifies factors affecting public and private sector initiatives and recommends modifications in strategy and procedure for the effective harmonization of the public and private sector initiatives for creating more jobs in the oil industry.A very educative chapter for entrepreneurs, who see the oil industry as shrouded in mystery, is the chapter on the Contract Management. This chapter covers points like "Objective of a Contract Plan"; "Resources Required for the Contract", "Types of Contract and Time-scale of Activities", "Risk Management and Contingency Planning"; and "Close-out and Evaluation Criteria" among others In conclusion, it is hoped that the book will give the readers sufficient insight and education on fundamental points of oil and gas operations so as to enhance greater understanding of the Nigerian oil and gas industry across social, educational and professional barriers.