Heirs Energies has increased its crude oil production from 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 55,000 bpd in five years, as indigenous operators continue to expand their role in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Osayande Igiehon, disclosed this on Tuesday at the 49th Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigeria Council, in Lagos.
Igiehon said Heirs Energies assumed operational control of its assets in 2021 when production was at 25,000 bpd and has since more than doubled output.
“We took our assets in January 2021. We took over operational control in July at 25,000 barrels of oil per day. Today we are producing more than 50,000 barrels of oil per day. I got a production report this morning that we produced 55,000 barrels yesterday (Monday),” he said.
He added that the company currently produces more than 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, noting that its oil and gas production has significantly increased within the last five years.
According to the CEO, the growth was driven by improved security around oil infrastructure, reforms introduced through the Petroleum Industry Act, stronger engagement with host communities and increased participation of indigenous firms across the oil and gas value chain.
Igiehon also highlighted improvements in pipeline security, saying the company has recorded a major increase in the volume of crude delivered to its export terminal.
“When we came in during 2021, only three per cent of our production reached the export terminal. Today, we deliver between 95 and 100 per cent of production to the terminal,” he said.
He stated that the company had not lost any barrel of crude oil to community-related disruptions in more than five years.
The Heirs Energies CEO said indigenous companies now account for more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil production, compared with between 20 and 30 per cent before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If you look at indigenous participation in the operating sector, you will find out that pre-COVID, participation was somewhere around 20 to 30 per cent. Today, over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s oil production is operated by indigenous companies,” he said.
Igiehon attributed part of Nigeria’s recent production recovery to the increased role of local operators, noting that crude output has risen from about 700,000 bpd in 2022 to approximately 1.7 million bpd currently.
However, he warned that achieving the Federal Government’s three million barrels per day production target would require additional investment, technical expertise and expanded industry capacity.
“The ambition is not simply to move from 1.7 million barrels to three million barrels. We also have to deal with decline rates, which means the industry must develop substantially more capacity to achieve that target,” he said.
He identified limited scale among oilfield service companies as one of the key challenges facing the sector’s future growth.
The executive called for strategic consolidation, improved financing structures and stronger collaboration among indigenous operators to build capacity and sustain production growth.
