Education
Experts seek intensified exploration to boost Nigeria’s oil reserves – EnviroNews
– Advertisement –
Oil and gas experts have urged Nigeria to intensify exploration activities to replace depleting reserves and unlock additional resources in frontier and mature basins.
The experts made the call on Thursday, October 8, at a panel session of the 2026 NAEC Energy Conference organised by the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) in Lagos.
The President of the Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Mrs. Cecilia Ajayi, said sustained exploration was necessary to reverse the decline in Nigeria’s oil reserves.
“We continue to advocate for more exploration so that as we are depleting the current reserves, we are replacing,” Ajayi said.
She said Nigeria’s reserves had declined from about 39 billion barrels to 37 billion barrels, underscoring the need to intensify exploration.
Ajayi said exploration should extend to frontier areas and mature basins, where modern technology could help identify additional resources.
“The frontier environment needs to be explored,” she said.
She urged regulators to provide incentives to reduce the risks and costs associated with frontier exploration.
According to her, investors could be allowed to undertake limited technical work to de-risk frontier assets before making full exploration commitments.
Ajayi cited Ghana’s approach, where frontier investors could undertake technical work before paying signature bonuses, as a model Nigeria could consider.
She also said modern technology could help unlock additional resources in mature fields by enabling operators to drill deeper and recover bypassed oil.
“So, we should please go ahead, drill deeper, redevelop, bypass oil. Let’s take advantage of technology to do what needs to be done,” she said.
Also speaking, Mr. Austin Avuru, Executive Chairman and Founder of AA Holdings Ltd., said access to petroleum assets alone would not guarantee increased production without adequate investment and execution capacity.
Avuru said operators also needed access to gas, infrastructure and financing to convert acquired assets into productive investments.
“You had established capacity. You were in business. You just didn’t get access,” he said, highlighting infrastructure constraints facing operators.
He said inadequate infrastructure had delayed efforts to develop production and monetise petroleum resources.
“We were struggling to build a pipeline to build assets, to realise. Can you imagine how long it took?” he said.
Avuru said Nigeria needed to strengthen investment in exploration and improve execution capacity to sustain future production.
He added that access to global financing would remain critical as operators sought capital to develop petroleum assets and expand production.
By Olusegun Aribike
