2.1.

Oil Industry in Nigeria According to Akinyele (Akinyele, 2011), petroleum is a highly sensitive resource in Nigeria the importance of which has continued to this day. Oil is the main d river and source of foreign exchange earnings for the Nigerian economy and accor ding to Chuku (Chukwu, 2002), the Nigerian petroleum industry contributes over 8 0% of Nigerian government revenues and has been extensively used and beneficial not only to the development of infrastructure in Nigeria, but it also significan tly contributes to the development of other industries in terms of contributing to a multiplier effect of the industry. The Nigeria oil industry has been gradu ally increasing from a mere 5000 barrels per day in 1958 to 2.3 million barrels per day by 1979. Nigeria currently produces over 30 million barrels of crude oil per day (Mathiason, 2006) which makes it Africa s number one producer of oil and ga s and ranked seventh in the world since 2006 (Guardian, 2006). The huge production base and the importance of the oil industry to the Nigerian economy and the high technology in the industry require the employment of highly skilled employees (Baker, 2006). This is especially important given that employ ee performance is paramount. Baker (Baker, 2006) , however argues that because o f the need and desire to expand the multiplier effect, the Nigerian government h ad actively embarked on grooming skilled local manpower in order to reduce the d ominance of the industry by expatriate workers. This strategy of grooming a loca l workforce further highlights the importance of effective management techniques that ensure the required employee performance. This is vitally important given the increased competition. Enhancing employee performance in the Nigerian oil industry is not just about pe rformance in the production and refinement of petroleum and its products. It enc ompasses the broad spectrum of a company s activities such as business models and ma rketing. Incidentally, marketing which is an amalgamation of a myriad of many bu siness activities in an organised, planned and targeted way to deliver goods or services of acceptable quality of service and experience to customers. This acco rding to Achumba and Osuagwu (Achumba, et al., 1994) is critical to the very com petitiveness and survival of companies involved in the Nigeria oil industry, and (Mathiason, 2006) thinks that there has been an aggressive marketing strategy i n the Nigeria oil industry. This is compounded by fact that there had been a lack of competitive edge on the part of the indigenous oil companies in Nigeria due to unacceptable performance levels. The reason for this lack of competitiveness according to Li et al (Li, et al., 2000) is a lack of adequate skills which led to low performance levels. But there are other reasons such as a lack of adequate capital and the increased intensification of competition in this industry, mainly from foreign companies that provide better management systems and therefore more performance levels. Th is highlights the importance of looking at management techniques such as TQM, wh ich are known to enhance employee performance in other sectors in other countrie s.