Heirs Energies has increased crude oil production from about 25,000 barrels per day in 2021 to 55,000 barrels per day, according to the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Osayande Igiehon, as indigenous operators expand their role in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
Igiehon disclosed the production figure at the 49th Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigeria Council, in Lagos. He said the company assumed operational control of its assets in 2021 when production was around 25,000 barrels per day.
“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,” Igiehon said, adding that a production report showed output had reached 55,000 barrels the previous day. The figure has also been reported independently by other Nigerian media.
The company is also producing more than 100 million standard cubic feet of gas daily, according to Igiehon. Earlier company-linked publications had already placed Heirs Energies’ daily crude production above 50,000 barrels, lending additional context to the latest figure.
Igiehon attributed the increase to improved security, implementation of reforms under the Petroleum Industry Act, stronger engagement with host communities and the growing involvement of Nigerian companies in upstream operations.
One of the most significant improvements, he said, has been the proportion of produced crude reaching the export terminal. According to Igiehon, only about three per cent of production reached the terminal when the company took control of the assets in 2021, compared with between 95 and 100 per cent currently.
He also said Heirs Energies had not lost a barrel of crude to community-related disruptions in more than five years, attributing the performance partly to stronger relationships with host communities.
Igiehon further argued that indigenous companies now operate more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil production, compared with roughly 20 to 30 per cent before the COVID-19 pandemic. The growing role of Nigerian operators has accelerated in recent years as international oil companies divested several onshore assets to domestic firms.
He said the transition had contributed to the recovery of Nigeria’s overall crude output from the sharp decline recorded around 2022. However, achieving the federal government’s target of three million barrels per day would require substantially more investment, technical capacity and new production to offset natural decline rates.
“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,” Igiehon said.
Heirs Energies has also been positioning for further growth. The company recently secured a $750 million reserve-based financing facility from Afreximbank, with expansion plans aimed at increasing oil and gas production.
The latest production figure reinforces the increasing importance of indigenous operators in Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector. The next challenge for Heirs Energies will be sustaining the gains while expanding output, managing ageing assets and contributing to Nigeria’s broader production target.
