ELUMELU’S BIG OIL BET! Sets sight on oil dominance after banking, hotel, power industries

– Deploys huge capital to deepen oil and gas investments

By AYOOLA OLAOLUWA

After building one of Africa’s most influential banking groups and aggressively expanding into hospitality, power and other strategic sectors, the Chairman of Transcorp Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu, is now staking what could become his biggest business wager yet: Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

The billionaire investor, Business Hallmark’s findings revealed, is committing substantial financial resources to upstream oil and gas assets through his investment vehicle, Heirs Holdings, signaling a determination to establish a commanding presence in a sector long dominated by International Oil Companies (IOCs) and a handful of indigenous operators.

From Heirs Energy, and now Seplat Energy, the mercurial businessman is steadily expanding his tentacles in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.

Few Nigerian entrepreneurs have reinvented industries as successfully as Elumelu. As a youth corps member serving out his term in the compulsory National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) in Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) in 1985, a young Elumelu had his first banking experience, before becoming a salesman.

His banking career proper was launched in 1995 after he joined Allstates Trust Bank. After the banking crisis of 1995, he acquired Crystal bank and renamed it Standard Trust bank, which brought several critical innovations, such as instant money transfer across the country.

Backed by a small group of investors, Elumelu bought a struggling bank, Crystal Bank (later renamed Standard Trust Bank) in 1997 which he turned into a profitable company within few years.

Making A Business Statement

In 2005, Elumelu staged one of the biggest banking industry’s coups in the world with the acquisition of UBA, which was almost five times more than STB in Asset base. The deal was widely touted as a merger between Elumelu’s much smaller bank, Standard Trust Bank (STB), and pan-African bank, UBA.

But in actual fact, it was a takeover, with Elumelu’s STB completely swallowing UBA, though the brand name UBA was retained because of its popularity and wide reach.

Under his leadership as managing director/chief executive officer, Elumelu turned around the fortune of UBA, which had struggled under the ownership and management of Mr. Hakeem Belo Osagie, and turned it from a single-country banking group to a pan-African bank with subsidiaries in over 25 African, American and European countries, including Nigeria, China, and France.

In 2010, he stepped down as CEO and assumed the chairman’s role I compliance to Central Bank of Nigeria’s director of 10 tenure for all bank chiefs.

Personal Business Focus

After his exit as chief executive officer of UBA, Elumelu turned his attention to his family-owned investment holding company, Heirs Holdings, which maintains a portfolio of investments across several sectors like power (electricity), hospitality and energy.

Specifically, through his Heirs Holdings, he owns controlling stake in Transcorp Plc, owners of the iconic Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, Transcorp Energy, Heirs Energy and the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).

Despite his huge accomplishments in the energy, insurance, power, hospitality and banking sectors, Elumelu, like an Oliver Twist, is looking for more. He is presently pushing to extend his influence in the nation’s energy industry.

His foray into the energy sector, available documents seen by our correspondent showed, began in August 2010 with the establishment of Heirs Energy for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the oil rich Niger Delta region.

However, breakthrough didn’t come until eleven years later when Heirs Energies acquired 45 per cent of OML 17 for $1 billion on July 1st, 2021. According to data produced by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the field has a reserve of over 1.5 billion barrels of oil (MMBo) and 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas (Tcf).

From a modest production output of about 5,000 barrels per day five years ago, Heirs Energies has supported Nigeria’s energy security by sustainably pushing crude oil production to over 50,000 bpd.

Also, the company’s gas production has jumped from 30 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCF/d) to over 120 MMSCF/d. The feat has helped electricity generation to grow from less than 100 megawatts (MW) to over 325 MW.

Marginal Fields’ Breakthrough

In January 2026, the indigenous oil company proudly announced the successful reactivation of over 100 dormant wells to boost the nation’s oil production.

According to the firm, the feat was achieved without drilling new wells or building new facilities, but through rigorous restoration of legacy assets using its proprietary brownfield excellence methodology.

It added that it had so far reactivated approximately 100 dormant wells and sustained operation of 65-year-old pumps at over 85 per cent uptime.

Speaking on the feat back in January, Chairman of Heirs Energies, Tony Elumelu, said it stands as a practical demonstration of Africapitalism in action, where African enterprises deliver economic value, social impact, and national development in parallel.

“This milestone is not defined by the passage of time, but by what has been delivered. Heirs Energies was built on a clear conviction: that African capital, leadership, and expertise can responsibly operate strategic energy assets, deliver performance, and contribute meaningfully to national development. Over the past five years, that conviction has been tested-and proven-through execution”, Elumelu stated

He also disclosed that Heirs Energies had catalyzed a country-level response to crude oil theft, contributing to a dramatic recovery in terminal delivery from as low as three per cent in December 2021 to over 95 per cent since 2025.

Assessing its financial discipline and credibility, the energy firm said it has established a strong track record with local, regional, and global lenders, fulfilling all lending obligations without fail, culminating in a $750 million refinancing with Afreximbank.

Doubling Down

In December 2025, Elumelu doubled down on his push for more stake and role in the nation’s highly lucrative oil and gas sector, when he acquired a 20.7 per cent equity stake in the nation’s biggest indigenous explorer, Seplat Energy Limited.

Available data revealed that Elumelu, through his Heirs Holdings Ltd., acquired the stake from France’s Etablissements Maurel & Prom SA for $500 million, making him the company’s largest single shareholder.

Seplat currently produces about 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboepd), while Heirs Energies contributes roughly 70 kboepd.

Combined, the two Tony Elumelu led oil firms now have a daily production capacity of approximately 370,000 kboepd, made up of 280,000 barrels of crude oil per day and 490 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd).

At the close of trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, July 3rd, 2026, Seplat Energy’s market capitalization stood at N6.82 trillion, representing 4.63% of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) equity market.

The Seplat deal with Maurel & Prom, which had been a key investor since the company’s founding in 2009, apart from making Elumelu richer, at least, from the continued appreciation of his holdings in the company on the NGX shares, has effectively strengthened his footprint in the nation’s energy sector as the biggest player.

From Investor To Chairman

On June 9, 2026, Seplat Energy announced the appointment of the billionaire investor as its new chairman effective January 2027. The shrewd financier will replace Senator Udoma Udo Udoma as chairman.

Speaking on the appointment, Seplat said Elumelu’s experience in corporate governance, institution building, and value creation will support the company’s ambition to become a resilient and globally competitive energy business.

Meanwhile, BH gathered at the weekend that the current expansion reflects a long-term strategy by the Onicha-Ukwu-Delta State born businessman to position himself at the heart of Africa’s most populous nation’s energy landscape.

According to sources close to Elumelu, the aggressive push is more than another portfolio investment.

“Rather, it represents a calculated bid to replicate the transformational success he recorded in banking and hospitality, where strategic acquisitions, disciplined execution and long-term capital turned struggling assets into profitable enterprises and market leaders.

“With Nigeria witnessing a gradual transfer of oil assets from multinational companies to indigenous firms, Elumelu’s timing is strategic.

“His growing energy empire, I am sure, will intensify competition among local operators while strengthening the role of Nigerian-owned companies in the country’s most important economic sector.

“If successfully executed, and I believe it will be, the oil and gas expansion will cement Elumelu’s reputation as one of Africa’s foremost business empire builders, extending his influence beyond finance and hospitality into the commanding heights of the continent’s energy industry,” said Tunde Balogun, an oil and gas broker operating from Lagos.