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Nigerian company, Heirs Energies Limited's dual-tranche senior secured reserve-based lending (RBL) facility was bestowed with the Best Oil & Gas Deal of the Year title at the EMEA Finance Project Finance Awards 2026

The US$750mn facility was born out of an innovative capital mobilisation strategy to become self sufficient in local resources exploration. Heirs Energies successfully translated this vision into reality with African Export-Import Bank's support as it helped in project execution.

The facility aims to accelerate field development, optimise production, and support Heirs Energies' long-term growth ambitions, while maintaining disciplined capital management.

Commenting on the recognition, Osa Igiehon, chief executive officer of Heirs Energies, said, "This recognition reflects the confidence that African and international financial institutions continue to place in Heirs Energies, our strategy, and our long-term vision. The transaction demonstrates that indigenous African energy companies can successfully structure and execute world-class financing solutions that support investment, growth, and value creation. We are proud to receive this award and grateful to our financing partners, advisers, and stakeholders whose support made it possible."

Haytham ElMaayergi, executive vice president, Global Trade Bank at Afreximbank, said, “We are truly honoured that the US$750 million dual-tranche Senior Secured Reserve-Based Lending facility for Heirs Energies has been recognised as Best Oil & Gas Deal of the Year by the EMEA Finance Project Finance Awards.

"This recognition underscores the importance of well-structured, Africa-focused financing in supporting indigenous energy companies with strong governance, high-quality assets and clear long-term growth plans. Afreximbank was proud to support this landmark transaction, which demonstrates how African financial institutions can help mobilise capital for strategic businesses that advance energy security, production capacity and sustainable value creation across the continent.

"We congratulate Heirs Energies and all the partners involved in the transaction and are pleased to see this important financing recognised on such a respected international platform.”

Samuel Nwanze, executive director and chief financial officer of Heirs Energies, said "This award validates the strength of the transaction and the confidence our financing partners placed in Heirs Energies.
The facility was designed to support our long-term growth strategy, enabling continued investment in field development, production optimisation, and sustainable value creation. We are pleased to see the transaction recognised on such a respected global platform."

Shearwater Geoservices, in partnership with Harvex Geosolutions, has conducted a 3D marine seismic survey on behalf of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited and Matrix Energy on blocks OML 100 and OPL 2010 offshore Nigeria

The two-month survey acquired high-quality 3D data using a towed-streamer configuration with an undershoot. The SW Duchess served as the primary seismic vessel, with the SW Gallien acting as the dedicated source vessel. The programme builds on Shearwater’s growing footprint in Nigeria and follows an expanding sequence of work in the wider West African region.

'Shearwater is pleased to complete this 3D towed-streamer and undershoot survey offshore Nigeria, which continues our strong relationship with TotalEnergies and builds on a programme of work in Nigeria and across the region', said Shearwater CEO Irene Waage Basili. 

Previously, the company has been in partnership with  the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to begin fresh multi-client seismic project, including 3D survey. The high-end vessel SW Duchess was deployed for the project. 

“This project underscores the growing momentum of our multi-client business and our key role in supporting exploration across key global basins,” Basili had said. “By investing in high-quality seismic data, where we can both capture rapid returns and create longer-term value, we are enabling smarter decisions and helping to shape the future of energy security in West Africa and beyond.” 

Saipem has bagged a million euro contract offshore Ivory Coast for the third development phase of Eni's Baleine project

Saipem will be overseeing the engineering, fabrication, transportation and installation work at water depths up to 1,300 meters, building approximately 50 km of rigid pipelines and associated subsea structures. The project aligns with the energy services provider's reputation in delivering complex energy infrastructures of strategic importance to global operators. 

Construction vessels FDS and Shen Da will be deployed for around three years to support operations of scale, involving the transportation and installation of flexible risers, flexible jumpers, subsea production systems and a 3-km-long flexible gas export flowline, as well as 22 km of subsea umbilical.

The strategically significant offshore project's engineering, procurement and construction works across multiple wells will be undertaken by SLB's OneSubsea joint venture. This will involve the installation of complete subsea production systems (SPS) for 13 wells. 

This contract will support the entire well life cycle, starting with the installation of subsea trees, umbilical, manifolds, multiphase flowmeters and control systems, through to commissioning and life-of-field services. This integrated approach will streamline execution and support the project’s fast-track development schedule.

"Baleine Phase 3 brings together scale and execution certainty," said Mads Hjelmeland, chief executive officer of SLB OneSubsea. "Through our subsea production system technology and by leveraging our established local presence, we are supporting Eni’s efforts to advance a complex, deepwater project efficiently while contributing to the long-term development of offshore resources in Côte d’Ivoire."

TechnipFMC, too is contributing to the fast track development, establishing a network of flexible flowlines and risers to be connected to a new floating production unit.

Jonathan Landes, president-subsea for TechnipFMC, said, “This award marks the continued expansion of our collaboration with Eni. We are excited to apply our expertise to provide a robust flexible pipe solution with schedule certainty in support of this fast-track project.”

A new gas discovery offshore western Libya has been confirmed by the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Eni North Africa, following the drilling of the exploration well J1-4/16

After reaching a final depth of 10,458 ft, flow rates across two tests from the Metlawi reservoir stood at 14 million cubic feet per day through a 32/64-inch choke in the first test, and 24 MMcf/d through a 62/64-inch choke in the second.

Lying approximately 95 kilometers from the coast, the well forms part of Contract 4/16, where Eni is the operator, and also remains the final well in fulfilling nine contractual obligations for offshore Contract Block D, as stipulated in the agreement signed in June 2008. 

This discovery can potentially add to Libya's production count, which saw an impressive rise last year. According to a table of the average daily crude oil production and total (cumulative) production figures for the past 10 years that was recently released by NOC Libya, 2025 had recorded the highest average production rate in comparison to the last decade, at 1.374 million barrels per day. Total crude oil production for the year reached 501 million barrels, marking a posititve shift in the NOC’s strategy to boost crude oil production rates. 

Eni is set to launch three exploration plays in Libya – shallow, deepwater and ultra-deep offshore, and is also deeply invested in the region's gas with the US$10bn Greenstream pipeline and a CO2 capture and storage plant in Mellitah.

In line with Nigeria's strategy to expand reach in export market, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has globally released its new crude grade – Cawthorne 

With an API gravity of 36.4 that denotes the light and sweet kind, the Cawthorne crude rules global market demand because of its unmatched petrol and diesel yields. Comparable to Bonny Light, Cawthorne crude blend is the latest from Nigeria’s basket of crude grades, building on recent additions such as Nembe and Utapate. 

The consistent market launches come from optimised production, helping Nigeria to solidify its base in the export market with diverse offerings. The Cawthorne Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) vessel, which is strategically positioned offshore Bonny, Rivers State for enhanced energy security and operational efficiency in easy crude evacuation from OML18, comprised the maiden 950,000 barrels cargo for export. Loaded on an MT Eburones vessel, it headed to the Netherlands, and unto the global market. 

As Nigeria aims to attain crude production of three million barrels per day and gas output to 12 billion cubic feet per day by 2030, the international launch of Cawthorne will unlock value from its asset base and deepen market competitiveness.

“This milestone reflects the direction we have set for NNPC Limited—one anchored on execution, partnership, and value creation. We are moving decisively from resource potential to resource monetisation, ensuring that every asset delivers measurable commercial outcomes.

"The successful export of the Cawthorne crude grade is not an isolated achievement; it is part of a broader, deliberate strategy to grow production, deepen market relevance, and strengthen Nigeria’s position as a reliable global energy supplier. We remain firmly focused on delivering sustainable growth in line with national objectives and global market expectations,” said Bashir Bayo Ojulari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, as he acknowledged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s leadership and OML 18 partners' strong collaboration in achieving the milestone. 

Technological innovation, strategic partnerships, and operational discipline will remain central to NNPC Limited's vision as the organisation works towards value creation from Nigeria's vast hydrocarbons resources.

"The first thing that is important for the overall management of the company is to start trying to be visible," said the group chief executive officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company, Bashir Bayo Ojulari, at the International Energy Week, while speaking to Andy Brown, the president of Energy Institute, which recently hosted the event's seventh edition in London

As the NNPC works towards achieving 3 million barrels of oil per day by 2030, the government-turned-private company is reviewing its portfolio as it undergoes major revisioning and restructuring. Ojulari hailed this as a very bold step on the Nigerian President's part, especially because the injection of international oil company veterans complemented the company's regional structure to form a new leadership team.

"Based on what we have seen so far, we are firstly restructuring the shape of our partnerships. Majority of our production, as you know, is in partnership with Shell, ExxonMobil, and other private companies. We focused on aligning our programmes and plans with these partners so that we have a joint committee," he said, alongside highlighting financing as a second challenge, which is also driving the company's portfolio decisions. 

NNPC's vision lies in pushing industrialisation within Nigeria and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, while expanding the localisation of both oil and gas. The company's focus on meeting energy demand within Africa stands clear even at international platforms such as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, where its strategy is more about deepening utilisation of its own resources than just producing and exporting. To ramp up expansion on the downstream side, the major Dangote refinery besides, several local refineries are currently operational as well. NNPC has thus identified significant downstream projects that can potentially support additional power generation, industrial gas-based industries, fertilisers and petrochemical points. Last year alone five agreements have been signed to advance utilisation across the region.

Gas is also a major element for NNPC in catapulting industrialisation in Africa. For starters, industrial parks in Nigeria were identified as supply points for mass consumption. These will be brought under the mega-infrasrtucture of the highly anticipated Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Natural Gas Pipeline and the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben pipeline projects that are ready for commissioning this year. The combined capacity of these two pipelines are set to exceed 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day.

"We're passionate about connecting Africa," said Ojulari as he mentioned the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline that is set to run across West Africa down to Morocco. Expressing excitement regarding the project's viability inspite of its challenges, he said, "But today it's commercially very profitable venture...our plan is to just go in chunks. So the next is to go to Ivory Coast." Assuring that a list of countries are lined up to join the project, he explained, "Some of those countries also have gas resources, but they do not have the economy or scale. So the idea of that pipeline is that those countries that have stranded gas can also connect their gas to the pipeline as well as take the gas."

Having served six years as the managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, Ojulari's new role demands fresh approach towards success. "In Shell and in other IOC companies...we focus on the financial side of the opportunity...And then when we are all done, let's look at the non technical," he said while explaining how IOCs have their own framework with technical, economic, commercial, organisational and political aspects. And once all that are figured out, they check the competition in the industry.

On the other hand, speaking of his new role, he said, "We can't afford to do that in my world. We start with the political...It becomes more critical because here NNPC is owned by the 230 million Nigerians. They are shareholders. They have appointed two entities -- the finance ministry and the petroleum industry to be the holders of the shares. So our accountability is to these 230 million people. We cannot afford to exclude ourselves from the political structure. We are carrying people along...bringing in the key people."

He went on to add, "We are starting a project. You need to bring somebody from the Minister of Finance. We bring them up. So that way we all get to be part of the project. We're making progress...we are more confident, and we are getting a lot of support in terms of the direction we're going."

According to Ojulari, establishing capital and organisational discipline is critical in achieving operational excellence and NNPC's future repositioning. He acknowledged the role of the company's leadership in bringing on board the sheer knowledge around how exploration and production businesses should be run, and how that knowledge is being transmitted to the country's gas power, new energy and downstream business. This also allows the company to be prepared to demonstrate "what it looks like" as when political influence comes into question, a lot depends "around the ability to show what it looks like". 

While the fundamental structures around the paperwork are in place for NNPC's transition into a private company post the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, changing the deep-rooted culture still remains one of the biggest challenges. "From being a corporation to a privately owned company, what we have realised is that the Nigerians are not fully clear of the [transition]. It requires a lot of interaction." 

The community-based surveillance structure that has been introduced by the government to address oil theft issues in Nigeria has proved a success on this matter. Involving the combined efforts of not just the security forces but also the community, a 100% availability was achieved in production reconciliation in the terminals, which earlier went as low as 10%.

"Most times we look at [such] challenges from a security perspective, but is a fundamental social problem. Here you have an environment where you still need a lot of development and a lot of social structure. So what was unique about this surveillance structure was that it was a community based surveillance structure which then combined the effort of the community as well as the effort of the security forces. And what we started to see is that once we integrated and focused on development of the communities as well, we started achieving 100% availability...for the last nine months now," said Ojulari.