Divestment: Indigenous Oil Firms to Account for 400,000 bpd Production

Peter Uzoho

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has predicted that indigenous oil and gas firms will soon be accountable for about 400,000 barrels per day production in the coming years.

This is as the International Oil Companies (IOCs) are increasingly divesting their onshore and shallow water assets in Nigeria following their shift towards the offshore and deepwater space.

The company also said the indigenous companies’ production may also account for 90 per cent or 100 per cent of their total production in the country unlike the IOCs, a situation it noted, required offering bigger incentive to the locals to protect and increase their production.

Managing Director of NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL), Mr. Nicholas Foucart, stated this during his speech at the just-concluded 2024 annual conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) in Lagos.

He added that the increasing entrance of the local oil firms into the upstream sector would result in new investment for projects in the industry, noting that the divestment by the IOCs also present an opportunity for the country, which requires enabling policies to maximise.

He urged the federal government to prioritise supporting indigenous oil and gas companies through bigger form of fiscal and regulatory incentives to the independents than the IOCs.

He explained that such incentives were necessary to enable the Nigerian independents to boost their capacity and optimize the values of the country’s hydrocarbon resources.