Heirs Energies doubles crude output to 55,000bpd

Heirs Energies has raised its crude oil production to 55,000 barrels per day from 25,000 bpd in five years as indigenous operators increasingly take control of Nigeria’s oil production.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Osayande Igiehon, disclosed this on Tuesday at the 49th Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigeria Council, in Lagos.

He said Heirs Energies assumed operational control of its assets in 2021, when production stood at 25,000 bpd.

“We took our assets in January 2021. We took over operational control in July at 25,000 barrels of oil per day. Today we are producing more than 50,000 barrels of oil per day. I got a production report this morning that we produced 55,000 barrels yesterday (Monday),” he said.

Igiehon added that the company was producing more than 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, noting that it had doubled its oil and gas output within five years.

He attributed the growth to improved security, fiscal reforms under the Petroleum Industry Act, stronger engagement with host communities and increased participation by indigenous companies across the value chain.

According to him, improved pipeline security had also helped the company increase the volume of crude reaching its export terminal.

“When we came in during 2021, only three per cent of our production reached the export terminal. Today, we deliver between 95 and 100 per cent of production to the terminal,” he said.

He added that the company had not lost a single barrel of crude oil to community-related disruptions in more than five years.

Igiehon said indigenous companies now accounted for more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil production, compared with 20 to 30 per cent before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If you look at indigenous participation in the operating sector, you will find out that pre-COVID, participation was somewhere around 20 to 30 per cent. Today, over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s oil production is operated by indigenous companies,” he said.

He stressed that the increased participation of indigenous operators had contributed to the recovery in Nigeria’s oil production, which rose from about 700,000 bpd in 2022 to approximately 1.7 million bpd at the moment.

However, Igiehon said achieving the Federal Government’s three mbpd production target would require more investment and technical capacity.

“The ambition is not simply to move from 1.7 million barrels to three million barrels. We also have to deal with decline rates, which means the industry must develop substantially more capacity to achieve that target,” he said.