The fifth edition of our Talented Tenth Annual, a yearly ranking of the Nigerian independents who now produce over a fifth of the country’s oil output, is served in the latest monthly issue of the Africa Oil+Gas Report.
It’s a deeply researched analysis of who has done what in the last two years. And who has the brightest prospects to prevail in the next five years.
We deliberately conflate the term ‘Nigeria’s indigenous independents’ with ‘Africa’s Homegrown Independents’, as none of the other leading African hydrocarbon producing countries hosts a profusion of local E&P enterprises like Nigeria does.
That said, it has been a fraught season, since October 2020, our last outing with this ranking.
Crude oil prices have surged, but African crude oil output have not altogether kept pace, to take advantage. Nigerian indies have been severely challenged by the inchoate environment of their country’s oil patch.
Projects have stalled, operations have been held up, debts have piled up, deals have been truncated. There is enough blame to go round.
Some of the independents themselves have been part of the problem, but state owned commercial, regulatory and policy making authorities have snatched defeat for the country, from the jaws of victory.
The Africa Oil+Gas Report is the primer of the hydrocarbon industry on the continent. It is the go-to medium for decision makers, whether they be international corporations or local entrepreneurs, technical enterprises or financing institutions, for useful analyses of Africa’s oil and gas industry. Published since November 2001, AOGR is a monthly publication delivered to subscribers around the world. Its website remains www.africaoilgasreport.com and the contact email address is info@africaoilgasreport.com. Contact telephone numbers at the headquarters in Lagos are +2347062420127, +2348036525979 and +2348023902519.