Canadian junior, ReconAfrica has commenced testing operations on schedule at the Kavango West 1X well on Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 73, in the onshore Kavango Basin in North-eastern Namibia.
In the latest press release, the company now names the well: “Kavango West-1X discovery well”, a description it was reluctant to make when it reported the well results in the first week of December 2025.
“By incorporating additional rock data, log analysis has continued to be updated which has resulted in refinements to previously disclosed results of the well log analysis”, ReconAfrica explains. “The current petrophysical analysis indicates 75 metres (246 feet) of net hydrocarbon pay in the Huttenberg formation, an increase over the previously disclosed 64 metres (210 feet). ReconAfrica, as operator, will be conducting production testing across six optimized zones, three of which are in the Huttenberg formation and three in the deeper Elandshoek formation”.
This deeper Elandshoek formation was described in the first reporting as “an additional 61 metres (200 feet) of hydrocarbon shows, where interpreted natural fractures in the limestone reservoir occur”.
In this on-going procedure, a total of 345 metres (1,132 feet) of prospective interval will be isolated and perforated for testing.
Regulatory permits required to proceed with production testing have been received and work crews are on site preparing the well for testing. The production liner, which was procured in North America, has arrived on site. The Company has signed contracts with Halliburton and Schlumberger Oilfield Services for equipment and services. Local suppliers have been engaged in multiple support capacities.
Seven oil producing joint ventures and two sole risk operators have committed to re-entry and work over activity on over 50 onshore and shallow offshore wells in the Niger Delta in the course of 2026.
There were eight wells undergoing work over activity out of 54 locations with drilling units in early March 2026.
But among the companies who have proposed the 50 work-overs over the 12 months of 2026, French major TOTALEnergies is leading the pack with a planned rig less workover on 17 wells from February to December 2026.
Heirs Energies, a Nigerian independent, proposed to move the land rig Thomas 1 to re-enter..
Recent commentary asserting that operator‑owned land rigs are fundamentally unsustainable in Nigeria’s upstream sector raises legitimate concerns. Poor utilisation, intermittent funding, weak maintenance discipline, and skills shortages have undeniably undermined the economics of many operator‑owned rigs. These outcomes are real and well documented.
However, the increasingly common conclusion that rig ownership itself is flawed—and should be replaced wholesale by third‑party O&M models—is overly simplistic. The core issue is not ownership. It is undisciplined ownership.
Ownership Is Not the Enemy — Weak Governance Is
Much of the critique of operator‑owned rigs rests on the implicit assumption that indigenous operators are structurally incapable of developing contractor‑grade operating discipline. That assumption is neither inevitable nor supported by international experience. Across multiple upstream markets, operators have successfully owned drilling assets by ring‑fencing them into professionally managed units, governed by clear performance metrics, staffed with experienced drilling personnel, and audited against recognised industry standards.
Figure 1: illustrates this distinction. Outcomes are driven by the interaction between governance quality and utilisation stability—not by ownership alone. Where governance is strong and utilisation predictable, ownership supports disciplined execution. Where governance is weak, ownership amplifies risk and value erosion.
Failures in Nigeria have not occurred because ownership is inherently uneconomic, but because rigs were treated as procurement trophies rather than as complex industrial assets. Ownership without institutional maturity is dangerous; ownership with institutional maturity can be strategic.
Strategic Control Still Matters
In Nigeria’s operating environment, rig availability is not a minor commercial variable. Contractor scarcity, reprioritisation by third‑party rig owners, security disruptions, and long mobilisation cycles can materially delay drilling programmes and erode asset value. For operators with time‑sensitive development plans, ownership can provide a degree of schedule control that spot‑market contracting cannot always guarantee.
Figure 2:highlights the underlying economics. Operator‑owned rigs destroy value when utilisation is low, but outperform chartered rigs when utilisation is sustained and predictable. The economic failure often attributed to ownership is, in reality, a utilisation failure.
Ownership also strengthens an operator’s position with regulators, joint‑venture partners, host communities, and lenders. These factors are sometimes dismissed as “psychological drivers,” but in practice they are strategic considerations in capital‑intensive, politically complex operating environments.
Utilisation Is a Portfolio Question, Not a Verdict on Ownership
Low utilisation is rightly identified as the principal risk of operator‑owned rigs. However, this reflects portfolio management choices rather than structural impossibility. Rigs need not be captive to single assets. With deliberate planning, they can be backfilled across multiple licences, deployed on non‑operated interests, or hired out during internal pauses.
Operators that fail to pursue such options are making strategic decisions—sometimes constrained, sometimes conservative—but these choices should not be mistaken for proof that ownership cannot work.
The O&M Alternative Is Not Risk‑Free
Third‑party O&M models offer clear advantages, but they are not a panacea. O&M providers face the same structural constraints as operators: foreign‑exchange exposure, spares lead‑time risk, OEM dependency, talent scarcity, and working‑capital pressure. Poorly structured O&M contracts can dilute accountability rather than improve it, redistributing risk while obscuring responsibility.
Figure 3: demonstrates that risk does not disappear under O&M arrangements—it shifts. The critical question is not whether rigs are owned or managed, but whether accountability, incentives, and governance are clearly aligned.
Capability Is Built by Doing, Not Avoiding
A further risk in abandoning ownership altogether is the deferral of indigenous capability development. Maintenance systems, competence assurance, reliability engineering, and contractor‑grade governance are not acquired by decree. They are built through repetition, investment, and institutional learning.
Operators that permanently outsource operational complexity may never develop the technical depth required to compete globally or to manage more sophisticated assets in the future. When approached deliberately, ownership can serve as a platform for capability development rather than a liability.
Good examples of this model are Saudi Aramco (via its joint venture ARO Drilling) and ADNOC (via ADNOC Drilling). These companies own massive fleets to ensure they have total control over their production capacity without being at the mercy of rig contractors.
Conclusion
Nigeria’s upstream sector does not require a binary choice between universal rig ownership and total reliance on third‑party O&M. Rig ownership is justified where there is multi‑year drilling visibility, portfolio‑level utilisation planning, ring‑fenced governance, and explicit investment in maintenance and competence. Where these conditions do not exist, chartering or O&M partnerships may indeed be superior.
Nigeria’s experience does not demonstrate that operator‑owned rigs fail. It demonstrates that undisciplined ownership fails. The industry should focus less on who owns rigs and more on how rigs are governed, operated, and integrated into long‑term portfolios.
Figure–Reference Mapping
Figure 1 – Ownership vs Execution Discipline Matrix
Supported by:
ISO 55000 Series – Asset Management: Governance and Lifecycle Discipline
IADC – Drilling Contractor Operating Models and Governance Practices
Figure 2 – Owned vs Chartered Rig Economics
Supported by:
IADC – Rig Cost Structures and Utilisation Sensitivity
Spears & Associates – Land Rig Cost Curves and Utilisation Thresholds
Figure 3 – Risk Distribution: Operator‑Owned vs O&M‑Managed
Supported by:
McKinsey & Company – Reliability and Accountability in Asset‑Heavy Operations
Toyin Awobadejo, MD Naiven Global Nigeria Ltd. and Managing Consultant with ProExcel UK, has over 19 years’ experience in the oil and Gas industry. He has excelled in various technical, commercial and managerial positions; working in top oil and gas companies in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia; having spent 13 years with Schlumberger and 6 years with AOS Orwell. He has an MBA from Warwick Business School UK and graduated top of his class with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ibadan Nigeria in 1999.
Barely a month after drilling a duster in shallow offshore Côte d’Ivoire, Murphy Oil’s geoscientists are poring through seismic data covering vast acreages, for clues to hydrocarbon accumulations located several hundred kilometres north of that west African country.
The American minnow signed into a new block with Moroccan state firm ONHYM, granting it 10 exploration permits for the 16,989km2 acreage, which combines the ‘Gharb Offshore’ and ‘Rabat Deep’ blocks in Morocco’s offshore ‘Atlantic margin’.
Morocco hopes the deal with Murphy Oil, which has been assigned a 75% operator’s stake, will tap the country’s ‘underexplored’ Atlantic margin, but Murphy is cautious about picking a drill site, preferring months of extensive reinterpretation of existing seismic.
Murphy’s Caracal-1X exploration well in Block CI-102 offshore Côte d’Ivoire encountered non-commercial hydrocarbon shows and was plugged and abandoned as a dry hole, after reaching a total depth of 8,534 feet (2,601 metres).
Murphy, together with its partner Société Nationale d’Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d’Ivoire (PETROCI), remains committed to moving forward with the Bubale-1X well in Block CI-709. This well targets a geological play independent from Civette-1X and Caracal-1X, the initial two wells in the three-well exploration campaign in Côte d’Ivoire. Murphy holds a 90 percent working interest in Block CI-102 and serves as operator. PETROCI holds the remaining 10 percent.
Spanish operator, Repsol relinquished the Gharb Offshore permit five years ago due to disappointing exploration results. Murphy is hoping that, with its understanding of the transform margin in West Africa, it could come up with a different result from what Repsol had in the North westernmost part of the continent..
The US minnow VAALCO Energy, has reported the result of the West Etame step out exploration well.
The verdict is: “It’s a Dud”.
The Etame West ET-14P exploration well, spud in mid-February 2026, encountered 10 metres of high-quality Gamba sands, in line with pre-drill predictions. But the target zone was water-bearing. the company says.
“The lower portion of the well will be plugged and abandoned but the well bore will be utilized and sidetracked in the upper portion of the well to drill the ET-14H development well in the Main Fault Block of Etame, pending partner approval. Operations are expected to be completed in April 2026.
VAALCO has set a low bar for the wll, whien it announced the proposed drilling in early ebruary. “The exploration prospect has a 57% chance of geologic success”, the company had declared. “On a success, the exploration prospect would add meaningful production and reserves to VAALCO’s 2026 year-end”.
The Norwegian geophysical company TGS has announced the Nigeria Laide multi-client three dimensional (3D) seismic survey, acquired in partnership with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and SeaSeis Geophysical Limited.
“The survey lies within the Outer Fold & Thrust Belt of the eastern Niger Delta, one of Nigeria’s most prolific hydrocarbon regions and covers approximately 11,700 square kilometres”, the company says.
“The Laide multi-client 3D survey design is based on the GeoStreamer dual-sensor system, long offsets, wide tow, and a triple-source configuration, delivering modern broadband seismic data that supports full-integrity PSTM and Q-PSDM through advanced Elastic FWI-driven velocity model building. The implementation of this technology enables explorers to overcome the complex geological challenges of the deepwater eastern Niger Delta, including stacked toe‑thrust structures, elongate anticlines (e.g. Bolia–Chota), inner fold-and-thrust-belt geometries, and shale diapirs/mud volcanoes.
“The modern, high-fidelity 3D seismic data provides operators with the data quality required to evaluate prospects with greater confidence”.
New York and London Listed junior VAALCO Energy, has reported an on-going exploration drilling to confirm the western extension of the Etame field, in shallow offshore Gabon.
The West Etame step out exploration well was spud in mid-February 2026, the company says.
VAALCO is drilling the well from the S1 slot on the Etame platform Etame West (ET-14P).
The bar is considerably low. “The exploration prospect has a 57% chance of geologic success and is expected to reach the target zone by mid-March 2026”, VAALCO says in a statement, adding: “On a success, the exploration prospect would add meaningful production and reserves to VAALCO’s 2026 year-end”.
VAALCO’s upbeat press release also includes updates on its earlier operations on the Etame accumulation.
“The company successfully drilled, completed and placed on production the Etame 15H-ST development well in the 1V block of the Etame field, with a lateral of 250 metres of net pay in high-quality Gamba sands near the top of the reservoir;
“o Stabilized flow rate of approximately 2,000 gross barrels of oil per day (BOPD) with a 38% water cut, through a 42/64 choke and ESP at 54 Hz, confirming expectations from the ET-15P pilot well results;
“o Actively managing the well to stabilize pressure and manage the reservoir”.
South African independent Rhino Resources has announced successful drill stem test results on its third well offshore Namibia.
Volans-1X, whose discovery was announced in October 2025, “showed strong deliverability (5,300Barrels per Day BPD of condensate and 33Million standard cubic feet of gas per day MMscf/d of gas) with low carbon dioxide, confirming rich gas-condensate fluids”, the company said in a statement. The results confirm “rich gas-condensate fluids, excellent reservoir deliverability consistent with connectivity across the feature” the statement added.
Volans-1X was spud on July 31, 2025 on Block 2914A, Petroleum Exploration License 85 (PEL85), offshore Orange Basin, Namibia, using the Northern Ocean’s semi-submersible Deepsea Mira.
The well reached a total depth of 4,497.5 metres True Vertical Depth Subsea (TVDSS) on August 30, 2025, “successfully penetrating the Upper Cretaceous target, with partners declaring the well a high liquid-yield gas condensate discovery in excellent quality reservoir on 1 October 2025”.
Rhino operates PEL 85 with a working interest of 42.5%. Co-venturers are Azule Energy (42.5%), NAMCOR (10%), and Korres Investments (5%).
Rhino said the results validates its pre-drill optimism around Volans optimism, “with the flow data suggesting that Volans-1x well was drilled in a geologically contiguous reservoir system, which is very encouraging for our ongoing development planning purposes.
The test confirmed good flow rates of hydrocarbons, with liquid production in line with the condensate-gas-ratio range that we had previously guided.
“The data also indicates the useful calibration with the discovery at Capricornus, which has served to de-risk Volans and provide a far more holistic understanding of the reservoir distributions across the block”, Rhino said.
Capricornus 1-X, which was drilled on the same block between February and April 2025, successfully completed a production test across a light oil-bearing reservoir, achieving a surface-constrained flow rate in excess of 11,000Stock Tank Barrels per day (stb/d) on a 40/64” choke. The light ~37° API oil exhibited limited associated gas with less than 2% CO2 and no hydrogen sulphide.
These positive test results are critical in informing Rhino, in collaboration with our partners Azule Energy, NAMCOR and Korres on how to assess the next steps for appraisal, development and production planning across the acreage.
Norwegian geophysical giant TGS has commenced the Nigeria Onshore MegaSurvey, a new regional-scale seismic project covering 28,000 square kilometres across the Onshore Niger Delta.
The project is supported by industry funding and is in partnership with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Petrodata Management Services and Reighshore Energy Services, and will deliver merged, continuous, modern three dimensional (3D) seismic coverage across one of Nigeria’s most established hydrocarbon provinces, with final products expected to be available in the third quarter of 2026.
“The onshore Niger Delta is a mature basin with a long history of exploration and production. However, much of the existing subsurface seismic data coverage is fragmented, limiting the ability of operators to assess opportunities at a regional scale”, TGS says in a statement.
“The Nigeria Onshore MegaSurvey addresses this challenge by delivering consistent seismic data continuity, enabling operators to review existing fields, evaluate undeveloped discoveries, and progress new exploration opportunities across the basin.
“By providing a unified regional dataset, the MegaSurvey supports more efficient subsurface evaluation, improved portfolio screening, and accelerated decision-making in an area that remains critical to Nigeria’s oil and gas sector”.
TGS has reported the commencement of reprocessing of the Liberia Sunfish three dimensional (3D) (Vision) seismic survey in the Harper Basin, offshore Liberia.
The project is supported by industry funding, the Oslo based geophysical service giant says in a release.
The Sunfish 3D survey covers approximately 6,100 square kilometers and was originally acquired by TGS in 2013. “The project will deliver a full 3D Kirchhoff Pre-Stack Depth Migration from field tapes, applying modern imaging workflows to enhance data quality and subsurface understanding. Final products are scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2026”, TGS explains.
“The reprocessed dataset is designed to deliver clearer imaging of Upper Cretaceous plays, with a strong focus on preserving the fidelity of AVO response throughout the data”, TGS notes. “This enables exploration teams to apply advanced reservoir characterization workflows with greater confidence, supporting more robust prospect evaluation in this complex setting.
This project is part of a broader, multi-year campaign by TGS in collaboration with the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) to rejuvenate the offshore Liberia seismic data portfolio. Upon completion, TGS will have reprocessed all available 2D and 3D seismic data in offshore Liberia, comprising of more than 50,000 kilometers of 2D seismic and over 31,000 square kilometers of 3D seismic through advanced modern pre-stack depth migration workflows.
Figure 1: illustrates this distinction. Outcomes are driven by the interaction between governance quality and utilisation stability—not by ownership alone. Where governance is strong and utilisation predictable, ownership supports disciplined execution. Where governance is weak, ownership amplifies risk and value erosion. 
Figure 2: highlights the underlying economics. Operator‑owned rigs destroy value when utilisation is low, but outperform chartered rigs when utilisation is sustained and predictable. The economic failure often attributed to ownership is, in reality, a utilisation failure. 
Figure 3: demonstrates that risk does not disappear under O&M arrangements—it shifts. The critical question is not whether rigs are owned or managed, but whether accountability, incentives, and governance are clearly aligned.
