Uche Cecil Izuora
Nigeria has made significant progress in attracting investment in the upstream oil and gas industry and has placed infrastructure development a priority to support expected growth in the sector.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), reflecting a continent-wide trend, recently stated it expects 22 major offshore oil and gas projects to begin between now and 2030, with investment potential of US$30-50 billion.
According to Industrial Info Resources (iir),report which is tracking progress ongoing investment in Africa’s energy investment, reports that more than 800 active capital oil and gas production, pipeline and terminal projects in Africa, with a total investment value of more than US$221 billion.
The Nigeria announcement by the NUPRC Chief Executive Officer Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, was made at the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ annual conference in Lagos.
“Since 2024, the NUPRC has approved over US$57 billion in field development plan(s) (FDPs), some of which have translated to final investment decisions,” Eyesan added.
Gordon Gorrie, Industrial Info Resources’ senior vice president of research – Oil & Gas, observed the expansion is far from unique in the continent. African nations, jolted by shortages stemming from Strait of Hormuz blockades, are investing not only in production, but midstream and other infrastructure.
While the Nigeria announcements did not mention international energy markets, the continent as a whole is using those markets as a wake-up call, increasing its energy investments across the board, Gorrie said.
The next 12-18 months will be a critical era for large-scale oil and gas projects in Africa. Several sanctioned but long-delayed upstream and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) developments will move toward first production.
Most of that capital, as in Nigeria, is concentrated in offshore oil development, with some going to a new wave of LNG liquefaction capacity.
Not all the push for this is for on-continent interest, said Gorrie–some is global. “The current global risk crisis has pushed international buyer interest in African LNG, away from Middle Eastern uncertainties.”
TotalEnergies has restarted construction on its 12.9 million-tonne-per-annum (MTPA) Mozambique LNG project, which is slated for completion in 2030. Restarts for both were verified on February 10, 18 days before the closing of the Strait of Hormuz due to the U.S./Israel-vs.-Iran conflict. The Industrial Info Resources Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Production Project Database offers a detailed report on this development.
Also, Exxon Mobil Corporation continues to target a final investment decision on the 18-MTPA Ravuma LNG project during 2026. Also to be located in Mozambique, the initiation was in late 2017, but was delayed due to COVID 19, according to Industrial Info Resources data. A restart was announced in late June.
As a continent, this year’s outlook is for oil and gas investment of US$41 billion, with production reaching 11.4 barrels per day (bpd), Gorrie said. On a per-nation basis Nigeria leads the continent, seeing its crude production rise to 1.71 million bpd from April 2025 to April 2026.
Plus, the management of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has said the country could add 100,000 bpd between now and the end of 2026 to replace some production lost from the Strait of Hormuz.
The key deepwater development is Shell Plc’s Bonga/Southwest/Aparo complex which regained some steam through fiscal incentives and support from president, Bola Tinubu.
It is expected to produce 150,000 bpd of crude oil upon completion