Heirs Energies has increased its crude oil production from 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 55,000bpd over the past five years, highlighting the growing role of indigenous companies in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Osayande Igiehon, disclosed the development while speaking at the 49th Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Nigeria Council in Lagos.
According to him, Heirs Energies assumed operational control of its oil assets in 2021 when production stood at about 25,000bpd. Since then, the company has steadily expanded output, with its latest production report showing daily output had reached 55,000 barrels.
Beyond crude oil, Igiehon said the company currently produces more than 100 million standard cubic feet of natural gas daily, reflecting significant growth across its upstream operations.
He attributed the improvement to stronger pipeline security, reforms introduced under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), improved relationships with host communities, and the increasing participation of indigenous operators in the sector.
The CEO noted that pipeline reliability has improved considerably, allowing almost all of the company’s crude production to reach export terminals, compared with the heavy losses experienced when it first took over the assets.
He also stated that Heirs Energies has not recorded any community-related crude oil losses in more than five years, describing this as evidence of stronger collaboration with host communities.
Igiehon said indigenous oil companies now operate more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil production, a significant increase from the levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the shift has played a major role in the country’s recovery in oil output, which has risen from around 700,000bpd in 2022 to about 1.7 millionbpd.
Despite the progress, he stressed that reaching the Federal Government’s target of producing three million barrels of oil per day would require fresh investments, expanded technical capacity and efforts to offset production decline from ageing fields.
He further identified the limited capacity of many indigenous oilfield service companies as a challenge to future growth, calling for greater collaboration, improved access to financing and strategic consolidation to strengthen the industry’s ability to support higher production levels.
