Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), in partnership with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council, has trained about 54 journalists in a workshop aimed at strengthening the quality of energy reporting across the country.
The one-day capacity-building programme, themed “Strengthening Energy Journalism Through Knowledge, Data Accuracy and Artificial Intelligence,” held on Tuesday at the NUJ FCT Council Secretariat, Utako, Abuja, forms part of Chevron’s long-running effort to build technical expertise among Nigerian journalists covering the energy sector.
Speaking at the event, Chevron’s Manager, Communications, Dr. Victor Anyaegbudike, said the company had chosen journalism as a partnership area because of the profession’s strategic role in national governance.
He noted that the Advanced Writing and Reporting Programme, which the company began in 2014 in partnership with Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos, had trained 140 journalists before it was expanded nationwide.
With the last cohort, he said, the total number of journalists trained under Chevron’s various initiatives would reach 400.
Anyaegbudike said Chevron now runs similar training programmes with NUJ Chapters in Lagos, Delta State (Asaba and Warri) and the FCT, describing journalists as the “fourth estate of the realm” whose role in shaping public discourse is as important as that of the other arms of government.
He used the occasion to highlight Chevron’s operations in Nigeria, noting that the company has been active in the country for over 60 years, beginning as Gulf Oil Company of Nigeria before its transformation into Chevron Nigeria Limited.
He said the company’s gas gathering projects in the Ecravos area, including its gas-to-liquid plant, had helped cut gas flaring by 98%, with the target of eliminating gas flaring entirely.
On local content, Anyaegbudike said Chevron had been supporting Nigerian community development since 1999, ahead of the nation’s formal content policy introduced in 2010.
He said the company spends about $1 billion annually on local content, having invested over $10 billion in the past decade to build Nigerian capacity in the oil and gas industry.
He also cited the company’s Global Memorandum of Understanding, introduced in 2005, as a model of community-driven development, noting that over $140 million has been paid so far toward community projects under the Host Community Development Trust framework.
He charged the trained journalists to deepen their technical understanding of the energy sector, uphold data accuracy in their reporting, and use artificial intelligence responsibly.
Also speaking, the Deputy Bureau Chief of The Guardian Newspaper, Kingsley Jeremieh, addressed the theme of data accuracy in energy journalism. He stressed that the energy sector is driven fundamentally by numbers, and cautioned journalists against common statistical errors -such as confusing percentage increases with percentage-point changes, relying on outdated figures in fast-moving markets, and uncritically reproducing figures from government or corporate press releases without independent verification.
In a separate presentation on artificial intelligence in the newsroom, the Editor-In-Chief of the Forefront Magazine and Online News, Amos Dunia, told participants that AI has c become indispensable to modern journalism but stressed that it remains a tool to support, not replace human judgment.
He warned that AI-generated content must be verified and cross-checked, given its potential for both accuracy and misuse.
In her opening remarks, the Chairman of the NUJ FCT Council, comrade Grace Ike, welcomed the participants and described the training as an investment in accuracy, context and credibility.
She urged journalists to prioritise verification over speed and independent inquiry over convenience, while commending Chevron for its continued support of journalism training initiatives in Nigeria.
