Heirs Energies, the indigenous Nigerian oil and gas company that has transformed OML 17 from a neglected legacy asset into one of the country’s best-performing onshore blocks, is pushing further into digital field operations, production growth, and strategic acquisitions — deploying Starlink-powered satellite connectivity across remote oilfield sites to enable real-time monitoring, robust communications, and advanced IoT integration in some of the most logistically challenging terrain in the Niger Delta.
The connectivity rollout is enabling real-time asset management and data-driven decision making at field level, strengthening uptime and operational efficiency in ways that were previously impractical at remote locations dependent on unreliable terrestrial networks. The digital push is backed by substantial financial firepower: in December 2025, Heirs Energies secured a $750 million dual-tranche senior-secured reserve-based lending facility from the African Export-Import Bank, earmarked to accelerate development at OML 17 and reinforcing what the company describes as an ‘Africa financing Africa’ model — a deliberate strategy to demonstrate that major upstream investment can be structured and executed through African-led financial institutions without dependence on Western capital markets.
Operationally, the results at OML 17 — a 1,300-square-kilometre onshore asset in Rivers State — have been striking. Since assuming operatorship in 2021, Heirs Energies has more than doubled oil production to over 50,000 barrels per day while growing gas output to approximately 120 to 135 million standard cubic feet per day. Through its Brownfield Excellence strategy — which has involved reactivating over 100 dormant wells and sustaining asset uptime above 85 percent — the company has simultaneously reduced theft-related losses and improved terminal delivery reconciliation to near-total accuracy, reversing years of value leakage that had made OML 17 commercially marginal under previous management.
The company’s gas commercialisation ambitions have also moved to a new level. A joint venture between Heirs Energies and NNPC has executed gas flaring commercialisation agreements under the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, targeting the capture of approximately 180 million standard cubic feet per day of flare gas across OML 17. With five private offtakers engaged and commissioning expected by the third quarter of 2026, the initiative directly supports Nigeria’s Decade of Gas policy while monetising resources that were previously being wasted. In a parallel strategic move, Heirs Energies completed the acquisition of a 20.7 percent stake in Seplat Energy for approximately $496 million on December 31, 2025 — financed in part through its Afreximbank facility and credit support from the Africa Finance Corporation — becoming Seplat’s largest shareholder and establishing a new level of horizontal integration across Nigeria’s upstream and midstream value chain. The company has also embedded community development at the heart of its operating model, with its OML 17 Host Communities Development Trust serving 73 communities in Rivers State through over 1,600 scholarships, vocational skills training for more than 300 youths, and electrical infrastructure upgrades benefitting 270,000 people.
Source: Oriental News Nigeria