The Federal Government has once again urged indigenous oil companies to scale up their production in order to meet growing domestic demand, fulfill export commitments, and boost revenue contributions to the national treasury.
The Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, made the appeal in Abuja on Wednesday during a meeting with the management of Renaissance Africa Energy at the ministry’s headquarters
Recall that Renaissance Africa Energy, an indigenous oil company, recently completed the acquisition of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, following several months of negotiations and the eventual securing of regulatory approval.
The Renaissance consortium comprises ND Western Limited, Aradel Holdings Plc, FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development Company Limited, Waltersmith Group, and Petrolin, an international energy firm.
The consortium will collectively oversee assets valued at over $3 billion and is expected to produce around 100,000 barrels of oil per day across 12 oil mining leases.
In his remarks, the minister highlighted that Nigeria possesses the most skilled labour force in the oil and gas sector across Africa.
He, however, expressed concern that the country’s oil production has remained stagnant at around 1.5 million barrels per day, falling short of the 2025 budget benchmark of 2.1 million barrels per day.
Lokpobiri expressed optimism that the transfer of assets from International Oil Companies to Nigerian firms would significantly boost oil production.
He noted that with the assets now under local control, key decisions would be made within Nigeria, rather than in distant foreign headquarters, allowing for faster and more responsive management.
“Divestment is a global practice. If you want to attract investments, you must also allow people to divest when they want to. I’m proud to say that under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, these divestments were basically one of the obstacles to the flow of investments”, he said.
While expressing confidence in the ability of Nigerians to effectively manage the divested assets, Lokpobiri noted, “If you unveil Shell, if you unveil ExxonMobil, if you unveil Chevron, if you unveil all the IOCs, beyond the name and maybe a few of their top management, all those you see who had created these companies are Nigerians”.
He called on the management of Renaissance Africa Energy to demonstrate its capabilities by ramping up the company’s oil production.
Earlier, the CEO of Renaissance, Dr. Tony Attah, stated that the company is proudly Nigerian and aims to outperform Shell in managing the divested assets.
“Shell did its exploration, exploitation, and production to develop its own countries. But we, as Renaissance, are here to do exactly the same business, perhaps do it better to develop our own country, Nigeria. I think, for me personally, that is where the delineation and difference come in.
“It is about time that Nigeria takes that centre stage where we are called the giants of Africa. I know there are still one or two areas where we can still step forward if you go to the entertainment industry, the telcos, perhaps the banking, but I think energy is one area where, if you look at all the indices, we are leading, but we are leading based on data. But we want to lead and lead practically and be the energy leader in Africa”, he stated.
