Nigeria's Renaissance Africa consortium wants to double oil production in the assets it operates to 500,000 b/d by 2030, it said today.
Renaissance Africa purchased UK major Shell's 30pc operating stake in its onshore subsidiary SPDC in March. Since then, the consortium has boosted production in the assets by around 100,000 b/d to 240,000 b/d, chief executive Tony Attah said at Africa Energy Week in Cape Town.
Renaissance Africa comprises Nigerian independents ND Western, Aradel Energy, First E&P and Waltersmith, as well as Switzerland-based Petrolin. Its joint venture (JV) partners in the former SPDC assets include state-firm NNPC which holds 55pc, France's TotalEnergies with 10pc and Eni with 5pc.
TotalEnergies has agreed to sell its stake in the JV to Mauritius-based Chappal Energies, but Nigeria's upstream regulator earlier this month withdrew its approval for the deal.
Attah also said that Renaissance Africa had also boosted gas production by about 1bn ft³/d to 2bn ft³/d since taking over. The consortium said it is aiming to increase gas production to 3.2bn ft³/d by 2030, with 2.2bn ft³/d for LNG exports and 1bn ft³/d for the domestic market.
Renaissance Africa's targets form a key plank of NNPC's goals of boosting oil production to 2mn b/d by 2027 and 3mn b/d by 2030. NNPC also wants to increase gas output to 10bn ft³/d by 2027, and 12bn ft³/d by 2030.
Nigeria produced 1.712mn b/d of oil in July, including 1.507mn b/d of crude, according to NUPRC data. Gas production so far this year has averaged 7.59bn ft³/d, it said.
NNPC chief executive Bashir Ojulari earlier this year said that much of Renaissance Africa's output gains had come from restarting shut-in wells.
But the consortium said the partnership would need vast sums to realise its goals. Chief financial officer Olusegun Banwo put Renaissance Africa's share of the production goals at $4bn, implying $13.3bn for the JV.
Banwo said that the JV would probably need more equity investors to cover the cost of the plans.
"We know our senior partner [NNPC] has too many JVs that they have to take care of. So the money that will be available to Renaissance will just not be enough for the vision that we have," Banwo said.
Renaissance Africa also said it was looking to launch an initial public offering before 2030.

