By Emma Ujah & Udeme Akpan, Energy Editor

The founder and Chairman of Heirs Energies, Tony O. Elumelu, has called on operators to increase oil production so that the federal government can achieve energy security for Nigerians.

Speaking at the 2025 Heirs Energies Leadership Forum: Industry Leaders Discourse (ILD), which brought together high-level decision-makers, global energy Chief Executive officers, CEOs, to forge actionable strategies for accelerating Nigeria’s oil production growth with “Nigeria’s Oil Production Growth Roadmap – Acceleration Imperatives,” as its theme, yesterday, Elumelu, said increased output would also enable the nation generate additional revenue.

He said: “We must ramp up oil production to enable us earn more revenue with which to address the problem of energy security. Heirs Energies has raised the output of the asset we bought from Shell which was doing over 20, 000 bpd. We now record 53, 000 bpd, which is very significant. We are targeting even much higher oil production. Generally I believe that combined with other players, this nation should produce as much as 2.7 m bpd.”

Similarly, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, tasked operators in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to increase the nation’s output to 4 million barrels per day, mbpd.

He said the nation currently produces more than 1.7 million bpd and has the target of producing 2.06 mbpd in 2025 but should target the 4 mbpd in order to develop and execute projects and programmes that would enable it to produce more oil in the medium and long term.

Senator Lokpobiri, said: “Nigeria has the capacity to produce more oil than it is currently doing. We should not limit ourselves to meeting the quota of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC and our 2.06 mbpd budget target. We need to think beyond all these. We need to produce more oil.”

He said: “When I became Minister, we were producing about a million barrels. Today, we are doing about 1.8 mbpd. In January 2025, we produced 1.8 million barrels. The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC has the statutory authority to report what we produce on a daily and a monthly basis. It has the responsibility to send reports to me and the report I have is that we have approximately 1.8 million barrels in January.

“It is true that the budget of 2025 is predicated on 2.06 million barrels a day and I want to assure Nigerians that this is doable. I’ve always told people that when I came, one of the briefs I got was that during COVID we got 2.5 million barrels. One of the reasons why we are achieving what we are achieving is because everything has changed in Nigeria.

“Recall that for about 12 years, there was no investment. But when we came, we have changed the perception about Nigeria. So investments are coming in. We’ve also improved on the security situation in the Niger Delta and I want to use the opportunity to thank our military, Nigerian military, the paramilitary and civilian contractors. The combined effort of these has led to fewer infractions on our pipelines, less theft, less pipeline vandalization and increase in production.”

He said: “Shell and other International Oil Companies, IOCs, recently decided to invest in Bonga that has been in the pipeline for a long time. This is because we have been able to engage and more investments will continue to come. So, we are sure of getting to 2.7 billion by 2027.”

On his part, the Commission Chief Executive, NUPRC, Engineer Gbenga Komolafe, said: “The Commission is doing everything possible to ensure that the host communities, because that is very key, that the host communities allow for conducive environment. We are implementing the Host Community Development Trust Fund to impact communities and create a conducive environment for investment. Don’t forget that social inclusiveness is very key in ensuring peace in the host communities.

“The Commission is putting in place initiatives to ensure that we achieve the targeted production, and is trying to ensure operational effectiveness by the operators. The Commission, as part of the regulatory reforms, is driving the industry effectively by ensuring digitization that is automation of the licensing and approval processes.

“That is speeding up licensing and approval processes itself will translate, of course, automatically to efficiency in operations by reducing delays. Reducing delays will reduce cost of operations. We’re getting positive feedback from the industry, I mean that approval processes have not only been streamlined, but equally automated as part of the processes that the Commission is putting in place to ensure that the industry achieves the targeted 2.5 million barrels per day.”

“We are coming up with initiative whereby the Commission will encourage cluster development in a manner to address infrastructure challenge. We are going to come up with initiative in which development will be done in clusters to leverage economies of scale. These are a mixed bag of activities that the Commission is banking on to ensure that we meet our targeted production.”

Also, the Chairman, OPEC Board of Governors and CEO of First E&P, Adewale Adeyemo-Bero, expressed the commitment of OPEC and other stakeholders to increase oil production, adding that OPEC and Nigeria have the framework to encourage investment and output.

He said: “OPEC has a secretariat that does all the things you hear about, demand and supply balance, a massive secretariat in Vienna. But that secretariat needs a board of governors to help make sure their affairs are well governed. When they’re well governed, they can make presentations to the conference where our Minister sits. I think it’s important to let everyone know how that structure works.

“I’ve been chosen to make sure that bridge works, because there’s no use getting quota if we cannot contribute to production. I think OPEC is a unique organization, especially in these times. I’m in constant discussions with our head of delegation, NUPRC and other stakeholders. I think the important thing we should understand is that with Nigeria’s reserves and resource base, we don’t have any business being below 2 million barrels a day. Nigeria should be doing 2.5 mbpd and more than that.”

Also, the CEO of Heirs Energies, Osayande Igiehon, said: “We have been able to turn around the season of decline to one of growth as it was reported a few days ago for the month of January Nigeria produced 1.7 million barrels. The second shift we are seeing is that with the completion of the major divestments that have just come through, midwifed by the NUPRC. We are now looking at a situation where over 50 per cent in possibly 60 per cent of Nigeria’s oil production are now operated by indigenous companies.”