Nigeria’s oil problem is not resources, but value creation — Heirs Energies CEO Igiehon
CHIGOZIE AMADI
Nigeria’s greatest petroleum challenge is not a lack of resources but the persistent gap between the resources it holds and the value it creates from them.
This was the verdict of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Heirs Energies, Osayande Igiehon, while delivering his Keynote Address at the 15th Emmanuel Egbogah Foundation Lecture Series, held at the Emerald Energy Institute, University of Port Harcourt.
The theme of this year’s lecture was: “The Expanding Role of Upstream Independents in Nigeria: Implications for Petroleum Value Creation and Public Value.”Igiehon, who was represented by Fidelis Akpoghiran, Senior Vice President, Business Transformation & Innovation at Heirs Energies, said Nigeria has produced oil for over six decades and holds some of Africa’s largest hydrocarbon reserves, yet production remains below potential, electricity is unreliable, industries are constrained, and many host communities are yet to feel the impact of the resources extracted around them.
He noted that few developments have reshaped Nigeria’s petroleum landscape as profoundly as the rise of indigenous upstream operators.
“What began as a policy aspiration to promote local participation has evolved into one of the most important structural transformations in the history of the country’s oil and gas industry,” he said.
But he warned against premature celebration.“As we celebrate the rise of indigenous upstream operators, we must resist the temptation to declare victory too early. An asset can change ownership in a day but capability cannot,” Igiehon said.
“A Nigerian name on a licence does not automatically create Nigerian value. If an asset changes hands but production declines, infrastructure deteriorates and investment disappears, it means the names on the shareholder register have changed without changing the national outcome.
”Paying tribute to the late Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, in whose honour the lecture was instituted, Igiehon described him as more than a petroleum engineer and strategist.“Dr. Egbogah was a nation-builder who understood that natural resources derive their true value not from their existence beneath the ground, but from their ability to improve the lives of the people above it,” he said.
“He understood that technical excellence carries a public responsibility. Petroleum engineering was not simply about bringing hydrocarbons to the surface. It was about what those resources made possible above the ground.
”Bringing the message home, Igiehon cited Heirs Energies’ experience on OML 17 as proof that disciplined execution, not just ownership, creates value.“When we assumed operatorship of OML 17 in 2021, production was below 27,000 barrels per day. We inherited a mature brownfield asset and soon faced unprecedented crude theft and the shutdown of a critical evacuation route,” he recalled.“We focused on what we could control: restoring wells, rehabilitating aged facilities, strengthening asset integrity and improving visibility across the production system.
”From that, the company developed its philosophy of Brownfield Excellence — extracting maximum value from assets others had written off.“Through more than 100 well interventions and disciplined brownfield investment, we increased production to over 55,000 barrels per day,” he said.
Gas tells a similar story. Production has grown from less than 50 million standard cubic feet per day to a peak of about 135 million scf/d, with all gas channelled to the domestic market, enabling about 450 megawatts of electricity generation.
The feat, he noted, was achieved with a 100% Nigerian workforce, with the company recording 10 million Lost Time Injury-free man-hours in March 2026.For Igiehon, the lesson is clear: “Mature assets are not necessarily exhausted assets.
A shut-in well may still contain value. An ageing facility may still have productive life. A declining field may still become a platform for growth. But ownership alone will not unlock that value. It requires engineering discipline, targeted investment and accountability for outcomes.
”He linked this to Nigeria’s national ambition to grow crude production to 3 million barrels per day by 2030 — a target he described as a national economic objective, not just an industry one, critical to government revenue, foreign exchange, energy security and national development.
Achieving it, he argued, will depend on how effectively independents manage assets already in their hands, how they attract capital through transparency and discipline, and how government provides policy stability, timely approvals and a commercially realistic environment.“Petroleum development must create visible public value.
When gas leaves OML 17 and becomes electricity for a hospital, power for a factory or energy for a small business, petroleum development becomes meaningful to ordinary Nigerians,” he said.“Gas production cannot be separated from transportation, power generation and payment discipline. Operators must treat the gas value chain as one connected commercial system.”
He added that as international oil companies scale down, indigenous operators must become the new training ground for Nigerian professionals.“The sustainability of the industry depends on both reserve replacement and talent replacement.”“Ownership creates the opportunity. Capability converts that opportunity into performance and purpose converts performance into public value,” Igiehon concluded.
“The responsibility before Nigeria’s upstream independents is to transform assets into productive enterprises, gas into power and industry, Nigerian talent into global capability, and the country’s natural resources into lasting prosperity — just as Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah believed Nigerians could.”
