• Maintains 100% JV cash call payments, seeks partners’ compliance
• FG has hired PwC to streamline over 270 fees, taxes, says Lokpobiri
• Renaissance finds new oil in OML 74 after SPDC acquisition
• IPPG: Middle East crisis exposed Nigeria’s capacity gap
Emmanuel Addeh and Peter Uzoho in Abuja
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) yesterday disclosed that it saved $3.4 billion through contract restructuring and optimisation between April 2025 and July 2026, while remitting N19.5 trillion to the Federation Account over the period.
Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, made the revelation while highlighting the impact of ongoing reforms aimed at improving operational efficiency, reducing costs, strengthening partnerships, and enhancing value delivery to the federation.
Ojulari also stated that the national oil company had maintained full compliance with its joint venture cash call obligations.
He spoke in Abuja at the opening of the 25th Nigeria Oil & Gas (NOG) Energy Week, with the theme, “Advancing Energy Ambitions for Competitive and Resilient Economies.”
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, at the same event, said the federal government had commissioned renowned financial advisory and audit firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to undertake a global benchmarking of the over 270 fees, taxes, and rents imposed on oil and gas operators, as part of sweeping efforts to eliminate fiscal bottlenecks and make Nigeria competitive for capital.
The minister’s remarks followed comments by Chairman of Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), Mr. Adegbite Falade, that over 270 fees, rents, and taxes existed in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Falade called on government to address the challenge.
Then, in a major boost to reserves growth, Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited announced, at the forum, a significant hydrocarbon discovery at the JK-004 exploration well in shallow water Oil Mining Lease (OML) 74, less than one year after completing its acquisition of Shell’s onshore assets.
Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance, Mr. Tony Attah, said preliminary evaluation showed that the well encountered “approximately 1,000 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing column across seven reservoirs,” adding that “initial log interpretation and fluid analysis confirm excellent reservoir quality and light oil.”
For his part, Chairman of IPPG and Managing Director of Aradel Holdings, Falade, said geopolitical shocks had repeatedly exposed Nigeria’s inability to seize market windows. Falade recalled that when the Russia-Ukraine crisis disrupted European gas and refined product supplies from 2022, global buyers scrambled for alternatives.
He said Nigeria, with the 10th largest gas reserves in the world, held real leverage but capacity constraints and delayed Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) meant the county could not scale exports quickly enough to meet the new demands.
According to the scorecard presented by NNPC, the $3.4 billion cost savings were realised through contract restructuring and optimisation initiatives across the company’s operations. The reforms also contributed to an increase in government revenue, with NNPC reporting a government take of N19.5 trillion, representing a 21.8 per cent year-on-year increase.
Besides, a major highlight of the report was NNPC’s 100 per cent compliance with its joint venture cash call obligations across all its joint ventures from Financial Year 2025 to June 2026. However, the company’s partners recorded a blended compliance rate of just 61 per cent.
Of the 27 joint venture partners, only six were fully current with their obligations, while 13 recorded partial compliance with an average payment rate of 72 per cent, and eight remained in significant default, paying an average of only 14 per cent, and prompting Joint Operating Agreement remedies.
NNPC said it remained committed to sustaining its cash call obligations to support Nigeria’s target of achieving two million barrels of oil production per day.
Operationally, the company reported a six per cent increase in crude oil production year-on-year and an 8.1 per cent rise in gas production over the same period, reflecting improvements in upstream operations.
Ojulari also highlighted several strategic partnerships concluded since the last Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference, including a long term gas supply agreement with Nigeria LNG, progress on deepwater investments valued at over $20 billion, refinery related partnerships, industrial gas projects, and new gas supply arrangements.
Looking ahead, the company identified seven priority projects expected to drive production and gas infrastructure growth through 2027. These, it said, included the UTM Floating LNG project, the OB3 East West Connector, the AKK gas pipeline, refinery technical enhancement projects, the Zabazaba deepwater development, the Owowo field, and the BSWAP project.
The company said the combination of cost optimisation, stronger operational performance, improved infrastructure reliability, and strategic partnerships would reinforce Nigeria’s energy security, boost government revenues, and support sustainable growth in oil and gas production.
Ojulari said the national oil company achieved 98 per cent recovery across five crude export terminals between April 2025 and May 2026, up from one per cent at Bonny in June 2022. He put current output at 1.71mbpd, the highest in five years, with NNPCL Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL) hitting a record 365,000 bpd.
Gas production, he said, reached 7.5 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscf/d) following the River Niger crossing on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Pipeline and inauguration of the ANOH Gas Plant.
Ojulari added that NNPC had “zero tolerance for partners who are not able to fund their Cash-call” and had begun invoking default clauses.
He stressed collaboration over control, saying, “We have rid ourselves of any pseudo-regulation. We are not the super-regulator. Let them regulate. We want to work.”
Meanwhile, the federal government disclosed that it commissioned PwC to undertake a global benchmarking of the over 270 fees, taxes, and rents imposed on oil and gas operators. Lokpobiri said this was part of comprehensive efforts to eliminate fiscal bottlenecks and make Nigeria competitive for capital.
Confirming IPPG’s assertion, Lokpobiri said the multiplicity of statutory charges, many as low as “three cents, five cents, one dollar”, had become a major drag on investment despite their small monetary value, because each attracted the same compliance paperwork as million-dollar payments.
Lokpobiri stated, “When the chairman of IPPG was talking, he made mention of the multiplicity of fees and rents.
“It’s been a major concern that Nigeria has over 270 fees, taxes, rents in this sector. It is true.”
He stressed, “But that doesn’t mean we are not doing something about it.”
He said the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), another group within the industry, had earlier alerted the government to the matter, and since then, the government had had several engagements with key stakeholders to address it.
He said the engagement of PwC was part of the solutions.
Lokpobiri stated, “And I’m happy to announce to you, as part of the steps we’ve taken, is to commission PwC to do a global benchmark. IPPG together with NUPRC came together under my directive to commission PwC to do a global benchmark.
“Sometimes, when you hear that you have 270 taxes, levies, the amount may be small. Some could be cents. But it will take you the same paperwork to pay one million dollars as you want to pay one cent.
“From the report I got from OPTS, they said it’s not even the volume of fees they want to pay, but the rigor of processing three cents, five cents, one dollar. They said, ‘Why don’t we group all together so that if I’m paying, I pay once, instead of having to make the company process 270 invoices.’
“So, what I’ve directed is that PwC should do the survey, do global benchmarking. What are the fees and rates in other jurisdictions? Nigeria has committed to be globally competitive.
“So let us benchmark it against other jurisdictions in the world. And that report will soon be ready, and I think that will resolve that problem once and for all.”
The minister said the Bola Tinubu administration had shown a pattern of listening and acting, adding that any genuine issue raised has been addressed.
He reiterated that Nigeria’s oil production, including condensate, had climbed to over 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), according to weekly reports from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), insisting that the country must return to 2.5mbpd levels.
He linked the output drive to global demand, saying the pressure is even more on him because of what has happened in the Gulf region. He revealed that he received delegations from across the world, including United States, Europe, Middle East, who were scrambling to buy Nigerian oil, but the country did not have enough to sell to them.
Lokpobiri credited the production rebound to policy stability and rig count growth, stating that the rigs have grown from about 14 in 2023 to over 60 active rigs currently.
According to him, that is what will guarantee the future growth in the industry and where the new barrels will come from.
He stated that years of underinvestment were reversing due to reforms, recalling that there was no investment in the sector for over 10 years.
“Today, I can announce to you that the so-called popular investments in Guyana are not up to one per cent of Bonga North,” Lokpobiri declared, citing Shell’s $5 billion deepwater project as evidence that capital was returning.
Similarly, in a major boost to reserves growth, Africa Energy Company Limited announced a significant hydrocarbon discovery at the JK-004 exploration well in shallow water Oil Mining Lease (OML) 74, less than one year after completing its acquisition of Shell’s onshore assets.
Attah described the discovery as proof that the “Drill or Drop” provision under the Petroleum Industry Acts (PIA) was working.
He said, “One of the things that we did was to encourage companies to comply with the provisions of the PIA.
“PIA has a provision of Drill or Drop. That provision was specifically put there to ensure that we sustain the drilling campaign.”
Equally speaking at the event, Falade said geopolitical shocks had repeatedly exposed Nigeria’s inability to seize market windows.
He called for a shift in government posture “from collector to catalyst”, warning that the Nigerian oil and gas industry remains the most taxed and levied in the country, and, perhaps, globally, with over 270 separate fees, taxes and levies.
Falade stated, “These fees from multiple agencies and the cumulative burden threatens to outpace fiscal incentives introduced under the Petroleum Industry Act to attract and retain investment.”
For smaller producers and operators of mature assets with thinner margin, he said the burden was a direct threat to project viability.
Falade urged a comprehensive harmonisation of fees and a review of PIA to codify presidential directives into law.
“We must ensure that our regulatory framework remains stable, transparent, and investment-friendly,” he said.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, declared at the event that Nigeria was positioning itself to become a leading global gas supplier through sweeping reforms, massive infrastructure investments, and policies aimed at transforming the country’s vast gas resources into a catalyst for economic growth.
Ekpo said the country was moving beyond being merely a gas-rich nation to becoming an economy powered by natural gas, leveraging its 215 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves, the largest in Africa.
He attributed the momentum to the PIA and Tinubu’s executive orders, which he said had improved regulatory certainty, introduced fiscal incentives for gas projects, shortened contracting timelines, and restored the commercial viability of deepwater developments, resulting in renewed Final Investment Decisions across the sector.
“Our message to the global investment community is unified and resolute: Nigeria is open for business, and we have established a stable, competitive, and highly predictable investment environment,” the minister said.
