Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, has called to question the capability of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd to deliver incremental growth as the country battles with low oil production.
She expressed the concern at the ongoing Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists Conference in Lagos.
According to her, the Presidency is planning to restructure asset ownership in the NNPC amid concerns over what it called its low oil production.
Verheijen outlined an agenda to revitalise Nigeria’s oil and gas sector while ensuring energy security and sustainable development.
She noted that achieving the 3-million-barrel daily oil production goal requires performance-based stewardship even as she questioned NNPC’s capacity to deliver incremental growth.
According to her, the NNPC E&P Limited only produces 220,000 barrels a day, an output she said is less than 10 per cent of national oil production. Verheijen expressed doubts that the NNPC can fund and execute the drilling campaigns needed to raise the figure.
Unlike in the era of international oil companies onshore, she said the current joint venture partners can no longer carry the NNPC, asking if the state-owned firm can deliver the incremental growth needed on its sole balance sheet.
If not, the special adviser said the country must have the courage to restructure asset ownership and invite those who can deliver credible operators in the technical capacity, the financial depth, and the governance discipline, saying revitalisation requires performance-based stewardship, not sentiment.
Verheijen said, “Independence will also matter more than ever, but independent must not mean inert. Our journey to three million barrels depends on companies like Renaissance, Oando, Seplat, Aiteo, and others moving beyond workovers and infill drilling toward bold, large-scale greenfield developments.
“Campaigns of the magnitude of Shell’s Forcados or ExxonMobil’s satellite field and NGL projects that truly move the needle, but at the same time, NEPL (NNPC E&P Limited) is now a critical lever for growth, and they only produce 220,000 barrels a day; that is less than 10 per cent of our national production. But can it fund and execute the drilling campaigns needed to juggle that figure?
“And unlike the IOC era onshore, its JV partners can no longer carry NNPC, so we must ask the hard question: Can an NNPC deliver the incremental growth we need on its own balance sheet? If not, we must have the courage to restructure asset ownership and invite those who can deliver credible operators in the technical capacity, the financial depth, and the governance discipline. Revitalisation requires performance-based stewardship, not sentiment.”
Verheijen outlined a broader framework she calls the ‘four R’s’ — reserves, revenues, reliability, and responsibility — as the yardstick for Nigeria’s energy sector.
On reserves, she said, “Rebuilding the opportunity set. Exploration is not a PowerPoint slide. It is a risky business. But risk has a price, and clarity is the discount. Since 2023, under President Tinubu’s leadership, Nigeria has worked to restore that clarity.”
She stressed the need for Nigeria to act fast to attract investment, saying the world is not standing still, and the countries will not wait for one another to catch up.
“For us in Nigeria, we must do more and move faster to attract exploration and production investment. And our investors have never been so spoiled for choice. The decisions they take will depend on clear, hard-headed assessments of where they can most easily deploy capital and achieve the best returns,” she stated.
She added that the Tinubu administration had prioritised reforms that make Nigeria a destination of choice for investments.
Verheijen further highlighted revenue generation and domestic value creation. According to her, in just 18 months, the current government had unlocked over $8bn in final investment decisions through Ubeta, Bonga North, and HI.
“With a clear line of sight to another $20bn, these aren’t signatures, they’re shovels in the ground. We’re commercialising gas through long-dated GSAs, anchoring LNG apipeline, gas-to-power, industrial uptake, expanding midstream infrastructure that turns stranded molecules into bankable assets.
“But our revenue agenda goes beyond exports. It is about domestic value creation, gas-to-power to stabilise our grid, LPG and CNG to replace fossil fuels, petrochemicals and fertilisers to strengthen agriculture and build our industrial base, and a refining that ends import dependence and positions Nigeria as a reliable supplier not just to Nigeria but to West Africa,” she said.
