Reforms unlock $24bn investments towards three million bpd oil target – NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has said recent reforms in the oil and gas sector have unlocked over $24bn in fresh investments, with an additional $10bn currently in the pipeline, as the country intensifies efforts to achieve its three million barrels per day production target.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Bayo Ojulari, disclosed this on Thursday at the 2026 Oloibiri Lecture and Energy Forum held in Abuja, where industry leaders converged to chart the future of Nigeria’s upstream sector.

The lecture in its 26th edition was themed, “Beyond the Three Million Barrels Target: Harmonising Digitalisation, Capital and Policy Frameworks for Intelligent Operations and Asset Optimisation.”

Organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, OLEF gathers policymakers, industry leaders, and academics to foster innovation and growth.

Ojulari, who was represented by the Executive Vice President, Upstream, Udobong Ntia, said the resolution of long-standing disputes and previously stalled Final Investment Decisions had significantly boosted investor confidence.

He also stated that the national oil company is ramping up AI pilots and digital mining of decades-old data to slash costs and propel Nigeria’s upstream sector toward a 3 million barrels per day (bpd) production goal.

He said, “Shortening the project cycle is very important. It would help us a lot. The resolution of long-standing issues, including legacy asset disputes and previously stalled FIDs, has unlocked significant investor confidence. These interventions have contributed over $24bn in capital investment from just two projects.”

He added, “I haven’t even added Owowo. There is an extra $10bn in the works, and some others that we are looking at very closely. Bosi has just passed gate one with the operators. Who knew Bosi would be headline news? There is a lot to look forward to.”

The NNPC boss said Nigeria now has a potential investment pipeline of about $34bn, combining confirmed and prospective inflows, describing it as a strong signal of renewed global confidence in the country’s oil and gas sector.

He stressed that beyond funding, the country must urgently embrace digital transformation, warning that failure to adopt artificial intelligence could leave operators uncompetitive.

The NNPC boss added, “I’ve been preaching AI for a long time, and it has now become an imperative. If we don’t do it, we’re going to be buried, frankly.”

“It is no longer a nice-to-have. It is an absolute necessity. We have spent a lot of money digitising our data, but if we don’t mine it, we will lose one of the most critical variables in the oil industry — data. We have to, and NNPC has shown leadership, spent a lot of money digitising all our data. Nigeria’s business are so mature and data-rich that if we don’t do anything about it, we will lose in the future one of the things that will be the most important variables you will have in the oil industry, data. We have to learn how to mine it.

“We have to do it as an imperative, otherwise our costs will balloon out of this world. There’s so much we can do, and we need to stay focused on that. The thing before us, beyond the 3 million barrels target, is both timely and instructive. It recognises that reaching and sustaining 3 million barrels per day is not merely a production aspiration but a commercial, regulatory, and capital slash digital opportunity. What I have in my notes is a digital challenge, but it’s frankly an opportunity if we begin to shift our focus to what really matters. It’s not just the operators that need to begin to move in that direction, it’s also the service providers.”

According to him, Nigeria holds decades of untapped data dating back to the first commercial oil discovery in 1956, much of which remains underutilised.

“We have logs still on paper, seismic data that have not been analysed. There is so much we can do. With technology alone, the three-million-barrel target is within sight in the next three to four years,” he stated.

Ojulari outlined a three-pronged strategy by NNPC to achieve the production target, including protecting existing assets, accelerating near-term production growth, and restructuring the company’s portfolio to attract new investors.

“To support Nigeria’s aspiration to reach and sustain three million barrels per day, NNPC Limited is executing a clearly sequenced, commercially grounded, three-stage strategy. And I want you to listen to this. The first one, we are protecting the base. Very important, we protect the base.

“What has been produced, the assets we have, ensure we keep integrity going. I mean, there are two words I want to try to eliminate. Two words I want to eliminate from our dictionary in the upstream and it’s called aged facilities. Some of us have worked abroad. And when we see facilities, a 10-year asset is looking brand new just by the way they maintain it. So the culture has to change across the board.

“Second, accelerating near-term growth. Through innovative commercial and financing frameworks, including alternative funding structures and optimised risk sharing, we are fast-tracking mature projects capable of delivering incremental barrels in the near-term. So you protect the base in the first case. In the second case, you accelerate near-term growth.

“And the third thing we’re working on is strategic portfolio review, which a number of you may have heard about. We’re reshaping our portfolio to unlock value, to enable new oil from new players. And I put that in parentheses. New oil from New players. Give people the opportunity to come invest in incremental production, and let’s see how that would go.

“We want to deepen indigenous participation and attract capital and capabilities. Capital is going to go towards the path of least resistance. It doesn’t like uncertainty. When you make a law, you stay with it. They want to stay for up to five or seven years. And they can’t wake up one morning, and the law has changed.”

He noted that improved regulatory clarity under the Petroleum Industry Act had helped eliminate funding bottlenecks, particularly the long-standing issue of cash call arrears.

“I don’t think any company can say it has struggled with cash calls in the last one and a half years. The PIA has helped tremendously,” he added.

He further described the three million barrels target as more than a production goal, saying it is a test of Nigeria’s regulatory efficiency, capital discipline, and digital readiness.