Italian explorer ENI has announced the start-up of hydrocarbon production from the Sabratha Compression Project, described as a strategic offshore development designed to sustain and increase gas production from the Bahr Essalam field, located approximately 100 kilometres off the Libyan coast.
The Sabratha Compression Project, carried out in partnership with the National Oil Corporation (NOC) of Libya through the Mellitah Oil & Gas joint venture, announces the successful involves the installation of a new 1,600-ton compression module on the Sabratha platform, equipped with new compression trains for a total capacity of approximately 440Million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d).
The new module allows for production to be maintained even under low-pressure conditions, offsetting the natural decline of the Bahr Essalam field and maximizing resource recovery. This will allow for an increase in gas production volumes of approximately 28Billion cubic feet per year (77MMscf/d), plus related condensates. The additional volumes will significantly contribute to supporting domestic power generation, strengthening Libya’s energy security, and exports to Italy via the GreenStream pipeline.
The launch of the Sabratha Compression Project confirms ENI and (the state hydrocarbon company NOC)’s “commitment to successfully and on-timely completing complex offshore developments, even in challenging environments. The project strengthens the resilience of the country’s gas infrastructure and represents a concrete contribution to the stability and growth of Libya’s energy sector”, ENI says in a statement.
Two other strategic projects are currently underway in the country: the Bouri Gas Utilization Project, for which connection and commissioning activities are underway following the recent installation of the Bouri Gas Recovery Module, and the Structures A&E project, aimed at developing two offshore gas fields.
The Namibian government has begun to clear the backlogs of farm –in/farm- out deals awaiting approval.
Just four days after -June 25, 2026-the London listed Tower Resources announced that it had received a formal letter of approval from the Namibian Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy for its farm-out of the Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 96 license to Prime Global Energies Limited, Canada based Eco (Atlantic) released a statement indicating Ministerial approval of the farm-out of its 85% participating interest in PEL 98 to Lamda Energy (Pty) Ltd . Eco (Atlantic)’s announcement was dated June 29, 2026.
Canada headquartered Stamper Oil &Gas had earlier announced, on June 22, 2026, that the farm-out process between TotalEnergies and Galp Energia on PEL 83 in the Orange Basin “has been completed”, meaning that the government has given formal approval to the transaction, which was set in motion by an agreement between the two parties in early December 2025.
It is instructive that Eco (Atlantic)’s transaction had taken around 10 months from agreement between the two parties (announced September 16, 2026) to approval by the state (announced June 29, 2026).
On the contrary, Tower Resources and Prime Global Energies initially announced their farm-out deal for the PEL 96 license as far back as January 10, 2025. The approval came in 17 months after.
TotalEnergies and Galp Energia disclosed their own transaction to the public in December 2025.
PEL 96 covers 23,297 square kilometres “of the highly prospective northern Walvis Basin and Dolphin Graben”, Tower Resources said.
PEL 98 (Block 2213, or the ‘Sharon Block’) in the Walvis Basin, is approximately 5,700 square kilometres in size, situated in shallow waters, ranging from 100 to 500 metres.
THERE HAD BEEN ANXIETIES ABOUT delays of approval of these transactions by the administration of President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who was inaugurated in March 2025.
When TotalEnergies and Galp Energia announced their farm-in/farm-out agreement involving two large discoveries (Galp operated Mopane field and Total operated Venus accumulation), the government immediately responded that the two companies had not consulted it before agreeing to a farm out. It was an unusual statement and it came off as a little aggressive. As a rule, oil companies often agree with themselves on farm outs, and then request for approvals after. It is up to governments to reject or approve.
The anxieties about Mrs. Nandi-Ndaitwah’s methods found expression in a recent update by Tower Resources (2025 Annual Report, June 1, 2026). “Every government has its own processes, but at the risk of stating the obvious, it is common for many individuals in different departments to review a file, to ensure a matter has been properly considered, that the decision-making process complies with different laws and regulations, and that the correct documents have been obtained and the resulting approvals are in the correct form. Delays can therefore occur as a result of any individuals raising questions, waiting for answers from another department, or simply being unavailable. In both Cameroon and Namibia the processes have been complicated by the Presidential elections in 2025. The new President of Namibia, HE Dr Nandi-Ndaitwah, has instigated an overhaul of the Ministry of Mines, Industries and Energy. We believe this reorganisation and expansion of staff will allow MIME and the Upstream Petroleum Unit in the office of the Presidency, which oversees MIME, to handle more effectively the greatly increased workload associated with the growth of the sector in the last couple of years, and the path to production. But it has also come at a cost in the short term, as the new organisation is formed and finds its feet.”
Eco Atlantic has one more approval to go. It says that the government’s approval process for BP’s farm in into its PELs 97, 99, and 100, initialled by the two companies in April, 2026, “is progressing and, subject to the satisfaction of the remaining conditions, is expected to close by September 2026.
Eco Atlantic’s deal with BP involves cash consideration of $2.7Million payable by BP to Eco on completion of the transaction. BP will carry 100% of Eco’s 25% retained interest, as well as Eco’s proportionate share of the (state hydrocarbon company) NAMCOR (10%) and Local Partners (5%) interest in PEL97, PEL99 and PEL100 for the current exploration phase, with a maximum aggregate carry consideration payable by BP in respect of Eco’s interests of $63Million (based on a maximum of $21Million per asset for each license).
The Zululand Energy Terminal (ZET) has officially launched its formal Expression of Interest (EOI) process to Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors.
This milestone signals the project’s transition from planning into active procurement and marks further progress in the development of critical energy infrastructure for South Africa.
The EOI provides qualified EPC contractors that meet the specified minimum requirements with an opportunity to participate in the delivery of this large-scale strategic energy infrastructure project.
EPC execution will be subject to ZET’s localisation and economic development objectives. Successful contractors will be expected to support local supplier participation, skills development and the utilisation of local labour.
Qualifying parties will be included in the project’s vendor database and may be shortlisted for subsequent phases as potential preferred contractors or subcontractors.
The closing date for submissions is 9 July 2026 @ 17:00 SAST. Submit to tenders@zlet.co.za
Qualifying parties will be included in the project’s vendor database and may be shortlisted for subsequent phases as potential preferred contractors or subcontractors.
If an NDA has not been previously signed, it is not required at this stage of the process. A response spreadsheet is attached for completion, and all relevant supporting documentation should be included in submissions.
We look forward to receiving your submission in the coming weeks.
As part of the takeover and direct operation of an offshore oil asset in the Ivorian sedimentary basin, PETROCI Holding, Côte d’Ivoire’s stat hydrocarbon company, is launching a recruitment process on behalf of an operating company currently being structured, which wishes to ensure the continuity of operations and support its development ambitions.
This acquisition offers a unique opportunity for experienced professionals wishing to put their expertise at the service of a strategic project, in a demanding, highly technical environment that meets international standards in the oil industry.
Number of places available: 10
Application procedures
Application files must include:
A detailed and up-to-date curriculum vitae;
A cover letter;
Copies of relevant diplomas and certificates;
Certificates justifying the required professional experience.
Note: Applications are only accepted electronically via the Petroci website.
Candidates are required to clearly indicate the exact job title they are applying for in the subject line of their application email.
Application deadline: June 30, 2026
We are looking for talented women and men with solid professional experience, driven by a strong sense of performance, operational excellence and commitment, and eager to contribute to the success of a structuring project for the Ivorian energy sector.
Join a team that will help write a new chapter in the oil history of Ivory Coast.
Italian explorer ENI has announced that its newly launched supercomputing system, HPC7 (High Performance Computing – HPC), is the world’s most powerful High-Performance Computer for industrial use.
“HPC7 thus surpasses HPC6, launched in November 2024, which has in turn confirmed its position within the TOP10, ranking 8th in the TOP500 list”.
HPC7 has a capacity of over 861 PFlops/s and it ranks 6th overall in the new TOP500 global ranking, and second supercomputer in Europe. It includes 3,480 compute nodes, incorporating a total of 13,920 GPUs. It has achieved a peak performance of over 861 PFlops (Rpeak) and over 571 PFlops sustained (Rmax), positioning it among the most advanced infrastructures in the world.
Both supercomputers are in a dedicated area of ENI’s Green Data Centre, benefiting from an infrastructure designed to combine operational efficiency with environmental sustainability. The strength of the Green Data Centre is enhanced by an innovative liquid cooling system, which employs direct liquid cooling (DLC) technology, capable of dissipating 96% of the generated heat. The system has a maximum power absorption of 9.4 MW (including cooling and supporting systems), achieving an efficiency of 65.426 GFlops/W.
“The combination of the HPC6 and HPC7 computing systems exceeds the Exascale threshold. Together, HPC6 and HPC7 can deliver over 1 Exaflop/s (1 Exaflop/s = 1000 PFlops/s), equivalent to more than 1Billion Billion complex mathematical operations per second. The achievement of Exascale-class performance by ENI’s supercomputing system represents the attainment of the most advanced and extraordinary technological frontier in the world of supercomputing and confirms the company’s leadership in the sector”, ENI brags in a release.
“The launch of HPC7 marks a key milestone in ENI’s strategy to enhance energy resources and decarbonization, within a model where technology is a central element of innovation, capable of supporting growth, efficiency and competitiveness in both traditional and transition businesses.
“In this context, advanced computing and HPC systems are confirmed as central to ENI, enabling the integration and enhancement of expertise and applications across the entire value chain: from subsurface understanding to the optimization of industrial plant operations, as well as improving the accuracy of geological and fluid dynamics studies for CO₂ storage and the development of advanced energy technologies.
“Supercomputing also contributes to accelerating the evolution of key innovation drivers, supporting the efficiency of emerging value chains – such as biofuels – and the simulation of complex phenomena, including plasma behaviour in magnetic confinement fusion”.
HPC7 is based on an architecture leveraging the same technology that underpins the most powerful systems currently available in Europe and worldwide, combining CPUs and GPUs in a hybrid configuration, with over 3,400 computing nodes and nearly 14,000 GPUs, to maximize computational performance and energy efficiency.
ENI says that HPC establishes itself as a crucial enabler for the internal development of artificial intelligence use cases in support of ENI’s businesses.
“This technological ecosystem also represents a distinctive value for ENI, as it can attract new initiatives and talents from outside the company, as already demonstrated with HPC6 through the Call4Innovators.
“In detail, ENI’s new HPC system allows to add HPC6’s 477 PFlops/s sustained to HPC7’s 571 PFlops/s, corresponding to peak performance values of 606 PFlops/s for the former and 861 PFlops/s for the latter.
“The combined computing power of HPC6 and HPC7 reaches 1048 PFlop/s sustained and 1467 PFlop/ peak”.
With a value of 65.426 GFlops/W, HPC7 also achieved an excellent position in the dedicated Green500 ranking—which measures system efficiency—placing 11th worldwide and ranking first among peer systems in its category.
U.S minnow Murphy Oil Corporation has announced an oil discovery at the Bubale-1X exploration well in Block CI-709, located approximately 64 kilometres in the Tano Basin offshore Côte d’Ivoire.
The Bubale-1X well was drilled to a total depth of 6,263 metres (20,548 feet) in 2,376 metres (7,795 feet) of water. The well encountered 30 metres (100 feet) of net oil pay across two reservoirs, with preliminary assessment indicating high-quality light oil.
6,263metres of vertical drilling is a lot of depth in Africa’s upstream portfolio and while there have been several wells drilled in water depths in excess of 2,500metres off the continent, Babale-1X’s 2,376 metres WD is still quite significant.
Murphy’s press release did not provide details of the drilling operations. Wellingence, the subsurface scout data consultancy, reported that “the well met difficult drilling conditions in its shallower Turonian objective”, but there is no clarity about the pressure regime, which often determines the pace of drilling.
“The Bubale-1X well is the third and final well in Murphy’s current three-well exploration campaign in Côte d’Ivoire. Following these results, Murphy will move into the next phase of evaluation, with one well planned for the second half of 2026 to test the extent of the discovery”, the company explained.
In its 2026 first quarter earnings presentation, Murphy cites the prospect’s mean to upward gross recoverable resource potential as approximately 340 to 850Million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe). “Early results at Bubale reinforce the prospectivity of our Côte d’Ivoire acreage,” said Eric Hambly, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are pleased with the results to date, which underscore the value of a disciplined and consistent exploration approach. Our immediate focus now is advancing evaluation plans to define the discovery’s full potential.”
The Bubale-1X well was spud in late February 2026 by Murphy, operator of Block CI-709. The company holds a 90% working interest in the block, with Société Nationale d’Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d’Ivoire (PETROCI) holding the remaining 10%.
Itaian contractor Saipem has been awarded a new offshore contract by Azule Energy for transportation and installation (T&I) services in support of the Greater PAJ project, offshore Angola. The contract, with duration of around 40 months, is worth $1Billion.
Saipem’s scope of work entails the engineering, fabrication, transportation and installation of approximately 180 kilometers of rigid pipelines and subsea facilities, at a water depth reaching up to 2,000 meters. The contract also includes the transportation and installation of 38km of flexible flowlines and jumpers and 54 km of umbilicals.
Fabrication activities will be carried out at Saipem’s Ambriz yard in Angola, with the involvement of local companies and workforce. For the offshore installation campaign, Saipem plans to deploy its construction vessels FDS and Castorone.
The Greater PAJ project is a $5.1Billion deepwater offshore oil development in Angola’s Lower Congo Basin. It is the country’s first integrated cross-block development, tying together five offshore fields (Palas, Astraea, Juno, Urano, and Dione) across Blocks 31 and 31/21.The reservoirs in the areas involved hold a total estimated reserve of 252Million barrels of oil, according to ENI.
The project involves drilling 17 wells tied back to a new Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will have a capacity to produce 95,000 barrels of oil per day and export 70Millon standard cubic feet of gas per day. Partners: with Azule Energy, the project’s operator, include Norway’s Equinor, Angola’s state-owned Sonangol E&P, and the Angolan oil and gas agency The Final Investment Decision (FID) was officially greenlit on June 22, 2026 with first oil expected in the first half of 2029.
“The Greater PAJ project, represents one of the most significant ultra-deepwater developments in sub-Saharan Africa” Saipem enthuss in a press release announcing the award.
Azule Energy is an incorporated joint venture owned by the Italian major ENI and the British giant bp.
The Lobito Corridor, which traverses 1300 kilometres east through Angola from the Atlantic Ocean coast to the border with the Demcratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and within easy reach of the Zambian border, is fast becoming an important trade route for critical raw materials(CRMs). The Lobito Corridor is attracting attention from a series of competing interests– China, Europe and the USA.
Yet their interests do not necessarily dovetail. The Chinese strategy, implemented through the country’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has developed a virtual monopoly position in copper-cobalt mining interests in the DRC and Zambia.
Europe and the United States are playing catch-up and have signed various agreements to ensure transparency, good governance, sustainable development and local content. All lovely agreements for the political folks back home but finding little traction within Angola-DRC- Zambia.
This is a story of China’s economic power-play, which has spanned decades and is being carried out on a global scale, unfathomable to western policy-makers. The Chinese are playing a long-game in which Chinese economic interests are displayed; and if per chance the local African economies can benefit from the Chinese game-plan this is seen as an additional bonus. But this story is also an important chapter in the energy transition. Understanding where copper-cobalt comes from you can begin to understand that such critical raw materials play a pivotal role in the electric batteries that drive our electrical vehicles.
To date through its BRI programme 150 countries have participated and since 2013 China has spent $1.4Trillion on construction and investment projects around the globe. What the Chinese in this period of time have invested is almost equal to what the World Bank has invested since its inception in 1944: nearly $1.5Trillion in developing nations and post-war reconstruction efforts deployed as grants, loans, and credits to fund critical infrastructure, education, and poverty reduction projects worldwide. In short BRI is China’s counter position to what the World Bank and regional development banks symbolize.
What is the Chinese Game Plan?
The China Belt and Road Initiative Investment Report 2025, authored by Christoph Nedopil Wang, provides an excellent summary of what the Chinese have carried out to date and an indication of what the future will entail. Nedopil Wang is the Founding Director of the Green Finance & Development Center and a Visiting Professor at the Fanhai International School of Finance (FISF) at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He is also a Professor at The University of Queensland and the lead for Asia Pacific Industry Transitions.
China’s copper value chain in the DRC involves specific constraints and activities; Chinese companies control over 70% of the copper-cobalt mines and output in the DRC. They rely heavily on modern extraction methods to yield high-grade copper cathodes in country.
The vast majority of Congolese copper—both concentrate and cathodes—is exported directly to China to manufacture green energy technologies, electronics, and infrastructure. The DRC lacks the domestic downstream manufacturing to fully close the loop locally. In the DRC, copper is simply extracted and smelted into raw materials to feed China’s domestic manufacturing and circular economy.
A true “total life cycle” process which includes closing the loop through product manufacturing, consumer use, and domestic recycling is simply a bridge too far for the DRC.
China’s production of copper and cobalt is only one example of China’s Belt and Road Initiative(BRI), China’s investment vehicle.
Key findings:
In 2025 Africa topped the list reaching US$61.2 billion with Republic of Congo receiving $23.1 billion.
2025 saw the highest BRI engagement ever for any year, with $128.4Billion in construction contracts and about $85.2Billion in investments;
Metals and mining sector reached new records with about $32.6Billion;
Copper, in support of data centers saw a significant surge of Chinese investment in 2025.
Preliminary data on Chinese engagement in the 150 countries of the Belt and Road Initiative through investments and construction contracts show record levels:
$128.4Billion (+81% compared to 2024) in construction contracts
$85.2Billion (+62% compared to 2024) in investment
This equals to atotal engagement of $213.5Billionthrough construction contracts and investments in about 350 deals in 2025 (+19% in deal numbers compared to 2024).
Cumulatively, Chinese BRI engagement has reached $1.4Trillion since 2013 of which $837Billion in construction and $561Billion in investments (see Figure 1 below).
Figure 1 : China’s BRI engagement by sector since 2013(left) and cumulative(right)
Source: China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report 2025
Current Status of the Lobito Corridor
In a timely study entitled The Lobito Corridor: A frontier for transition mineral partnerships in Africa, published by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in May 2026, a plea is made for how the Corridor could serve multiple purposes to catalyse investments across a number of sectors– logistics, energy, agriculture and industrial services—and “… lower the cost of importing fertilisers, chemicals and agricultural inputs into producer countries, reinforcing the Corridor’s relevance to broader economic development.”
According to the report, the full financial investment will require $6-8Billion: combining rail rehabilitation, upgrades and the greenfield Zambia link. To date only 15-25% in financing has been publicly announced or committed by donors, development finance institutions and concessionaires, mainly on the Angolan leg and initial works in the DRC.
Then there is the matter of how the value chain can be extended: positioning the region within global battery and EV value chains. The report acknowledges that…”developing EV value chains in Central Africa is complex and will require coordinated regional action”.
The report continues …“The DRC and Zambia have strengthened cooperation through the DRC–Zambia Bilateral Cooperation Agreement on the Battery and Clean Energy Value Chain, which established a joint Battery Council to support regulatory alignment, identify pilot projects and guide infrastructure development, including special economic zones. The Battery Council is supported by Afreximbank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms, and a pre-feasibility study led by ARISE has been completed, with a full feasibility assessment now under way”…
A Bloomberg NEF study investigated the feasibility of establishing special economic zones for manufacturing battery precursors in the DRC and Zambia: costing $2.7 Billion. Such a facility in the DRC would be three times cheaper than it would cost to building a similar plant in the USA because of cost competitiveness and proximity to raw materials.
Boosting Local Content
EITI argues that ”near-term progress is most realistic in simple fabrication activities such as copper rods, wiring and low-voltage cables that serve regional construction and electrification markets”. The agency says “these segments are less technology-intensive, offer meaningful job creation, and can strengthen industrial capabilities if supported through targeted fiscal incentives, improved credit access and workforce-development programmes.”
According to the report though, the number of firms able to produce entry-level copper rods or wiring across Southern and Central Africa for basic electrical products is limited.
EITI also expresses the hope that domestic smelting and refining capacity can be expanded, particularly as both the DRC and Zambia continue to export significant volumes at intermediate processing stages.
Some Final Remarks
Multilateral clamour–mostly from the developed world—that the Lobito Corridor must ensure transparency, good governance, sustainable development and local content are well-intended sound bites, but have little to do with political reality.
Instead look in the direction of China and think again about the 150 countries which are engaged with China’s BRI investment programme. China is where the power and strategy for the Lobito Corridor will be ultimately decided. With its massive global investments—US$1.4 trillion in the period 2013-2025, China is demonstrating where the real power is.
Of course, the Chinese will listen to reasonable demands to make the Lobito Corridor a corridor that will help spur regional development and growth in the region. The caveat being dependent on how much financing the industrial countries are prepared to undertake and help underwrite Chinese interests. Money has never been the problem…but the piper playing the tune will ultimately decide the scope, speed and direction of how the Lobito Corridor will be further developed. The Lobito Corridor is one example of China’s growing imperial power.
Gerard Kreeft, BA (Calvin University, Grand Rapids, USA) and MA (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada), Energy Transition Adviser, was founder and owner of EnergyWise. He has managed and implemented energy conferences, seminars and university master classes in Alaska, Angola, Brazil, Canada, India, Libya, Kazakhstan, Russia and throughout Europe. Kreeft has Dutch and Canadian citizenship and resides in the Netherlands.Hewrites on a regular basis for Africa Oil + Gas Report, and guest contributor to IEEFA(Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis). His book ‘The 10 Commandments of the Energy Transition ‘is on sale at https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000211674846/Gerard-Kreeft-The-10-Commandments-of-the-Energy-Transition
When I wrote at the start of this year about the quiet repricing of Nigeria’s energy market, the core of my argument was about capital. Custodians of capital had begun to take long-term, risk-based positions in complex assets, and credible exits were finally happening in value-generating, non-distressed upstream assets. Heirs Energies buying Maurel and Prom’s 20.07% stake in Seplat Energy for about $500Million was one of the two transactions I used to make the point.
Six months on, the story has moved from capital to control. From control to governance.
This is really a story about two companies, not one. Seplat is going deep, scaling its upstream and gas toward the weight of a major and edging toward deepwater. Aradel Holdings is going wide, the most vertically integrated operator we have, wellhead to refinery to NLNG cargo. Seplat comes first here because its boardroom made the news, but the two roads matter most read side by side.
Control Creating Governance
Seplat has announced that Tony Elumelu will become Chairman on the first of January, 2027, taking over from Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, who retires on December 31, 2026. Effiong Okon becomes Chief Executive Officer on August 1, 2026, succeeding Roger Brown after 13 years at Seplat, the last six as chief executive. Elumelu had already joined the board as a non-executive director in January 2026, weeks after Heirs became the single largest shareholder. The sequencing is deliberate. Capital first, board familiarity next, then the chair.
This is the logical second act of my repricing thesis. A 20.07% interest financed off African balance sheets was never going to sit quietly as passive money. It was always going to express itself through governance, converting ownership concentration into strategic direction under a controlled, well-signalled transition.
The Asset Base Now In Play
Seplat made history in 2010 as the first Nigerian company to buy and operate producing assets from an international oil company, taking Shell’s interest in a cluster of blocks located onshore western Niger Delta basin. Those assets, with the Oben and Sapele gas plants and the ANOH joint venture that reached first gas in January 2026, made it a leading indigenous gas and power supplier.
Then came the larger move. In December 2024 Seplat bought Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited from ExxonMobil for about $800Million. The detail that matters is what ExxonMobil kept. This was a shallow water sale. The major held on to its deepwater. Seplat more than doubled its production to about 131,500 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) a day, but every barrel of it sits in shallow water or onshore.
The immediate prize now sits inside the portfolio Seplat already owns. Its Roadmap 2030, set last September, targets 200,000BOEPD by the end of the decade, $5 to $6Billion of cumulative cash flow and a capital programme of up to $3Billion. Delivering it needs two things the new structure supplies: Elumelu’s reach into capital, across UBA, the development finance institutions and the markets, and a chief executive who has actually built and run complex projects.
The Next Horizon Is Deepwater
Here’s where my own view comes in. Once that base is optimised, the next horizon of growth for Seplat is the deepwater.
Deepwater is the final frontier for Nigerian operators, the place you move beyond marginal fields, onshore and shallow water into single, integrated projects with capital expenditure in the billions. It’s also, tellingly, the ground the majors have been least willing to give up. ExxonMobil sold Seplat its shallow water and onshore business and deliberately kept its Nigerian deepwater, its interests in Erha, Usan, Bonga and Owowo. The frontier sits open because the majors held onto it.
No indigenous Nigerian company has yet taken a deepwater final investment decision as operator. I can’t blame them. They aren’t finished with even a third of the onshore and shallow-water opportunity. Whoever crosses that line first will redefine what a Nigerian operator can be, and for Seplat it would mean a fresh, multi-billion-dollar commitment, by farm-in when a major sells down, or a partnered greenfield entry.
Which is why Effiong Okon as incoming chief executive matters. He cut his teeth at Shell, ran deepwater production on the Bonga field, the very asset class Seplat doesn’t yet own, and then delivered the politically and commercially complex ANOH project to first gas. That’s precisely the profile a deepwater ambition demands.
Aradel And The Other Road To Scale
On the narrow question of integration, the crown today belongs to Aradel Holdings.
Aradel is, without a doubt, the most vertically integrated indigenous energy company in the country. From its flagship Ogbele field, taken as Nigeria’s first marginal field farm-out in 2000, it runs a flow station, a 100Million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d) gas plant and an 11,000 barrels a day modular refinery, the first private one in Nigeria, now turning out around a million litres of diesel, kerosene and naphtha a day with petrol next. It was the first independent to sell non-JV gas into Bonny NLNG, back in 2012, and its Oil Mining Lease (OML) 34 gas feeds the West African Gas Pipeline that carries molecules on to Benin, Togo and Ghana. Wellhead to pump, molecule to NLNG cargo, Aradel runs the full chain.
It has scaled on the back of the majors leaving. Through ND Western and the Renaissance consortium it sits on the onshore acreage Shell exited in the SPDC sale, worth up to $2.4Billion, the $1.3Billion headline price plus up to $1.1billion for prior receivables and cash balances, feeding NLNG with billions of cubic feet a day of natural gas. At the end of 2025 it took majority control of both vehicles.
So Seplat isn’t chasing Aradel. They’re running different races. Aradel has gone wide, integrated across the whole chain from wellhead to refinery to NLNG cargo. Seplat has gone deep, concentrated in upstream and gas, with no refinery and no plan to pump petrol, its integration running from upstream into gas, processing and power, and in my view it must reach deepwater within 15 years. One firm is the closest we have to a complete national energy chain. The other is the closest thing we have to an indigenous major in the upstream and gas mould Shell once owned.
Why Nigeria Needs Them To Win
Aradel may own the integration crown, but Seplat is now in the ripest position to scale into a major in upstream and gas, the closest we have to what Shell once was as the backbone of the Nigerian sector. It has the asset base, the talent, and now the leadership and governance to pursue that vision.
The case for both runs well beyond their own balance sheets. A large, well-run indigenous operator drags a long chain of the economy behind it. Banks like UBA, Access and Zenith build the muscle to finance energy onshore, as Afreximbank and the AFC did on the Heirs deal. Nigerian insurers carry risk that once went abroad. Engineers and geoscientists build world-class skill without leaving the country. Pension funds and savers own the wealth that foreigners used to repatriate. And cheaper, more reliable gas sets the cost base for every factory on the grid.
Put numbers on it. Seplat produced about 131,500BOEPD in 2025. Aradel reported about 23,000 in the first half, but that understates what’s coming, since its end-2025 consolidation of ND Western and Renaissance folds in a far larger slice of the old Shell onshore production, another 40,000 barrels of oil a day on some counts and a great deal of gas besides. Fully consolidated, the two are pushing past 200,000 boepd today, with Aradel’s share climbing fast.
Run it forward. Seplat’s Roadmap targets 200,000BOEPD by 2030, and Aradel, digesting Renaissance, can climb well beyond 150,000BOEPD. That’s comfortably over 300,000BOEPD between them in five years. Stretch to ten years, with a Seplat producing on its assets and developing a deepwater project and Aradel’s Renaissance interests fully worked, and the pair could deliver 500,000BOEPD or more by the mid-2030s. Set that against a country producing about 1.7Million barrels of crude a day and chasing 3Million. Two indigenous houses carrying half a million barrels of oil equivalent between them would be shouldering the load the majors once carried alone.
There is a bigger picture here. The majors are handing the onshore and shallow water to Nigerians and keeping only the deepwater, and what fills that vacuum is two distinct models the country needs both of. Aradel widening across the chain into refining, petrochemicals, LPG and power. Seplat climbing the upstream curve into deepwater while deepening gas into processing and if possible, LNG. With a decade of sound capital decisions and a fiscal and regulatory regime that stays still long enough to reward patient money, Nigeria ends up with two homegrown heavyweights at a scale the sector has never produced on its own.
Beyond any corporate intent behind these appointments, I believe Nigeria needs both Seplat and Aradel to do well. The architecture needed to achieve this is in place. The build-out is the hard part. The next decade will be truly exciting.
Afolabi Akinrogunde is a senior energy executive with over 20 years of experience across Nigeria’s oil, gas, power, and renewable energy sectors, working at the intersection of energy infrastructure investment, operations, strategy and policy. Views expressed are personal and do not represent the position of his employer.
Panoro Energy’s recently completed acquisition of an additional 40.375% interest in Block G in Equatorial Guinea will increase the company’s overall share to 54.625% working interest production in the deepwater acreage located in the Rio Muni Basin.
The asset was acquired from Kosmos Energy, the US junior who is now left with only non-producing properties in the country.
“The event is transformational and highly accretive acquisition “, Panoro said of the completion, which followed approvals from the Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale (CEMAC) “and their mandatory anti-competition review which took approximately three months, and has been obtained in a record time well in advance of the six-month deadline”.
The acquisition positions Panoro as the largest independent E&P oil producer in Equatorial Guinea, where it sees scope for significant further organic and external growth.
But with the country’s overall crude oil output having been stuck at less than 55,000 Barrels of Oil Per Day (BOPD) in the last six months and Block G gross production contributing all of 20,500BOPD, the Norwegian player is merely becoming a larger fish in a small pond.
Panoro is counting the pennies and talking up the positive.
It says:
After interim adjustments in Panoro’s favour of $53Million, the closing consideration paid by Panoro is $127Million versus $180Million announced.
Panoro is due to lift a Block G cargo of ~546,000Barrels shortly in July 2026, of which ~404,000Barrels is attributed to the interest being acquired.
At flat pricing of $90/bbl & $80/bbl Panoro expects to achieve payback on the acquisition within 18 months (@$80/bbl = 24 months) from completion date.
At EG-23 Panoro is progressing work on the Estrella (gas) and Rodo (oil) discoveries for a coordinated initial appraisal and development project utilising existing nearby infrastructure. As per the 2025 AQSR Panoro has net 2C resource recognition of 26.3 MMboe.
Panoro is on track to produce over 20,000BOPD (on a net basis) in 2027.
The China Belt and Road Initiative Investment Report 2025, authored by Christoph Nedopil Wang, provides an excellent summary of what the Chinese have carried out to date and an indication of what the future will entail. Nedopil Wang is the Founding Director of the Green Finance & Development Center and a Visiting Professor at the Fanhai International School of Finance (FISF) at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He is also a Professor at The University of Queensland and the lead for Asia Pacific Industry Transitions.
