Indigenous firms lead Nigeria’s oil and gas sector’s resurgence, account for over 60% of nation’s production output 

Indigenous oil firms are helping Nigeria break free from its chronic dependence on International Oil (OICs) for the exploration and mining of its vast oil and natural gas deposits buried deep in the swamplands and shallow waters of the Niger-Delta region, Business Hallmark can report.

Due largely to the dogged and  spirited efforts of these local oil firms, the nation’s oil and gas output has risen from a 3-year low of about 950,000 barrels per day and 694,056 standard cubic feet per day (scfd) in August 2022 to 1.9 million barrels and 7.6 billion scfd respectively, in August 2025.

At the forefront of the renaissance are leading oil companies like Tony Elumelu’s Heirs Energies; Adeyemi Bero’s FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development Company (FIRST E&P); Wale Tinubu’s Oando Energy Resources (OER); Mohammed Indimi’s Oriental Energy Resources; Austin Avuru and ABC Orjiako led Seplat Energy, and Renaissance Energy, owned by a consortium of Nigerian energy firms.

These leading local energy firms and their relatively smaller, but vibrant and determined counterparts, BH findings revealed, are now responsible for the production of over 60 percent of Nigeria’s current crude oil and gas output.

It would be recalled that right into the late 80s and early 90s, Nigeria ranked among the most important producers of oil and gas in the world with its expansive hydrocarbon fields contributing more than five percent of the world’s energy needs.

Back From the Woods

But due to several factors, especially the incessant attacks on oil facilities and massive oil theft, which forced multinational oil companies to pull back from further investing in onshore assets, as well as exiting the troubled oil-rich Niger-Delta region in droves, oil production began to nose-dive.

As a result of the persistent downward trend, crude oil production crashed from its November 2005 peak of 2.475 million barrels per day to below 1 million barrels per day in August 2022.

However, the negative trend began to reverse starting from 2011 when the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan initially awarded a multi-billion naira pipelines surveillance contracts to ex-militants and ethnic warlords to help guard the the prized assets from vandals and oil thieves.

While the arrangement recorded some successes, the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari canceled it in July 2015, just two months after assuming office on May 29.

However, with the resurgence in pipeline vandalization and destruction of oil assets, the former president was forced to reverse the cancellation by awarding a much improved N48 billion-a-year pipelines surveillance contracts to a consortium of repentant former Niger Delta militants led by Government Ekpomupolo, popularly known as Tompolo in 2022.

While the arrangement produced immediate impact with oil thefts and vandalization reduced to the barest minimum, the reforms initiated by the administration of President Bola Tinubu in the nation’s oil and gas industry opened up the sector to massive development.

Specifically, the president’s directive to industry regulators to quickly resolve all outstanding issues arising from exiting IOCs divestment of their assets has turned out to be the magic wand.

According to BH findings, the resuscitation of abandoned wells by indigenous oil firm have added between 350,000 to 400,000 barrels per crude oil to the nation’s daily production in the last one and half years.

Local Firms Impetus

For instance, Nigeria’s biggest indigenous oil firm, Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited (RAEC), announced in August that it ramped up oil production to over 230,000 barrels per day at the end of June 2025, from 100,000 bpd in March.

This accretion, 130,000 bpd, came on the heels of its recent acquisition of Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) onshore assets in Nigeria.

Renaissance Energy

The consortium, BH learnt, is currently activating three dormant wells in order to achieve a production target of 300,000 before the end of the year.

One of the facilities, the Belama flow station, is a high-capacity asset capable of producing 25,000 bpd.

“At the point of acquisition in March, production stood at 100,000 bpd. Currently, we are producing 230,000 bpd, and we are confident of reaching 300,000 bpd by January 2026.

“We have a solid strategy to achieve this target. We know the crude locations, understand the challenges, and are implementing the right mechanisms to deliver results”, said Tony Attah, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Energy.

RAEC, a consortium of four local and one international oil companies, is made up of ND Western, Aradel Holdings, FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development Company,  Waltersmith Group, and Petrolin.

Seplat Energy

Another company at the forefront of driving the resurgence of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is Seplat Energy Plc. According to available data, Seplat was able to raise crude production by 20 percent by reviving some of the abandoned wells it inherited from ExxonMobil Exploration Nigeria.

Seplat, in its unaudited results for the six months ended June 30, 2025, obtained by BH, said it achieved an average production of 134,492 barrels of oil per day, up 178 per cent from 48,407 barrels per day in the same period of 2024.

According to the firm, it achieved 25,900 barrels per day of gross production capacity from the restoration of 29 idle oil wells in the first half of 2025 alone.

“Offshore, the idle well restoration programme added approximately 25,900 barrels of oil per day gross production capacity from the first 29 wells restored to production”, it said.

Further analysis of the report shows that oil production reached 100,327 bpd.

Specifically, offshore production contribution in the first half of the 2025 is made up of 86 per cent crude and condensate, 5 per cent NGL and 9 per cent gas, which stood at 79,660bpd.

In the same vein, onshore production contributed 54,831 bpd, about 13 per cent higher than what it contributed in the first half of 2024 to Seplat’s output.

As a result of the massive jump in oil output, the firm reported a revenue of N2.17 trillion in the first half of 2025, compared to the revenue of N575.1 billion it earned in the same period last year.

Sources in Seplat, who spoke to our correspondent on the matter at the weekend, said the restoration of the remaining 400 idle wells formerly owned by ExxonMobil will further add, at least, 220,000 barrels per day crude oil to the firm’s daily output in the next six months.

Seplat Energy, it would be recalled, completed its acquisition of the onshore and shallow water assets of ExxonMobil’s subsidiary in Nigeria, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU), in December 2024 after a three-year rancorous process.

Worth $1.3 billion, the deal, covering stakes in four oil mining licenses – OMLs 67, 68, 70 and 104, and more than 90 platforms and 300 producing wells, in addition to the Qua Iboe export terminal, and the Bonny River terminal and natural gas plant, immediately catapulted Seplat to Nigeria’s biggest indigenous oil firm before it was later overthrown by Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited.

Oando Exploration

Another local oil firm that has significantly shore up its  production in the last six months is Oando Plc. In its unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2025, Oando’s upstream business recorded strong production performance with a 63% year-on-year growth.

An analysis of the company’s financial report shows that oil production averaged 37,012 bpd in first half 2025, made up of crude oil, 10,479 bpd (77% appreciation); gas  25,399 bpd (up 54%) and NGL of  1,135 bpd, representing 375% appreciation.

The company attributed the feat to  the consolidation of the assets of Italian oil giant, Eni, which it bought from its Nigerian subsidiary, Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) for $783 million.

After a prolonged squabble with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) over the ownership of the 100% oil assets divested by Eni, Oando, in August 2024, announced the successful completion of the transfer process after the intervention of the Presidency.

With the completion of transfer of ownership, Oando’s participating interests in Oil Mining Licences (OMLs) 60, 61, 62, and 63 rose from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. It also increases its ownership stake in Joint Venture (JV) assets and infrastructure, which include 40 discovered oil and gas fields.

The deal also involves 12 production stations, approximately 1,490km of pipelines, three gas processing plants, the Brass River Oil Terminal and the Kwale-Okpai phases 1 and 2 power plants, with a total capacity of 960 megawats and associated infrastructure.

“In H1 2025, we advanced our growth agenda in our upstream division, the primary driver of the Group’s performance, by achieving a 63% year-on-year increase in production volumes.

“This (feat) was driven by the successful consolidation of NAOC’s assets, early gains from our optimization program and our assumption of operatorship, which enabled us implement holistic security measures amid improved community relations, resulting in enhanced infrastructure reliability, higher production volumes, and greater operational resilience,” said the Group Chief Executive, Oando PLC, Mr. Wale Tinubu.

Meanwhile, Oando is maintaining a  production target of 30,000 to 40,000 bpd for second half of 2025. Oando, it would be recalled, had stormed the Nigerian oil and gas sector about a decade ago when it acquired ConocoPhillips’ Nigeria assets in a deal worth $1.8 billion.

Heirs Energies

Just like Renaissance Energy, Seplat and Oando, Heirs Energies is also at the forefront of of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector’s resurgence.

Just last week, the oil firm announced that it had doubled daily output at its oil well, OML 17, from 27,000 barrels to 50,000 barrels, and aims to reach 100,000 barrels per day in the coming years.

Heirs was able to achieve this feat by restarting idle wells it inherited from departing IOCs. For instance, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Osa Igiehon, announced last week that it successfully restarted a well that was shut down for 37 years.

Igiehon disclosed that the previous operator of the well could not operate it for over three decades.

“There is a well we reopened last week. This well has been down for 37 years. For several reasons, the previous operator could not restart it. And we have been trying to restart it for four years. But we succeeded in restarting it last week.

He explained that the challenges were not technical but stemmed from social and security issues that had long prevented the restart.

“There were community and security issues. But we started it up, and it’s producing very well. There was nothing wrong with the well technically. It was all the approved ground issues. And we have dealt with all those issues.

“I just want to add that the simple thing was that when we came in, there were up to 40 wells producing. In 100 days, we reactivated another 30 wells.

“So, we almost doubled the number of wells producing in 100 days. It was a very focused program.

The Heirs Energies CEO maintained that onshore operations is becoming attractive to other investors because of the feats Heirs Energies has achieved so far, boasting that the company is 100 per cent Nigerian.

“We are changing the narrative of what people used to think about Nigeria. So, when you tell people that an asset onshore gets close to 100 per cent of its volume, people are like, ‘Really?’

“All we used to think about was offshore Nigeria before it was rescripted. So, it’s also helping change that narrative, and the fact is that we have done this with a 100 per cent Nigerian workforce.

“Our whole organisation, I’m sure you know, is 100 per cent Nigerian. And our contractors are 95 per cent indigenous,” the Heirs Energies boss stated.

The company also announced plans to raise gas production from OML 17 from 100 million to 150 million standard cubic feet daily.

Other Big Players

Other oil firms that have played a role in the resurgence of the oil and gas sector are Oriental Energy, Natural Oilfield Services Ltd (NOSL), Addax Petroleum Nigeria Limited, Aiteo Oil, AMNI International Petroleum Development Company Ltd, Consolidated Oil Limited, Dubri Oil Company Ltd, Emerald Energy Resources Ltd, Lekoil Nigeria Ltd, Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Ltd.

One of the indigenous oil firms, Natural Oilfield Services Ltd (NOSL), a subsidiary of Sterling Oil Exploration & Energy Production Company Ltd (SEEPCO), successfully commenced oil production at Oil Mining Lease (OML) 13 in Akwa Ibom State on May 6, 2024 churning out 6,000 barrels per day.

By May 27, 2024, the company had ramped up production to 40,000 barrels per day. It is currently producing around 85,000 bpd.

Our correspondent gathered that the firms have been able to accomplish this feat by channeling their energies towards reviving idle wells, instead of spending time and huge resources on drilling new wells, which are capital intensive and take more time to accomplish.