Nigeria: Oil Giant Oando Set to Raise $750m for Oil Drilling, Boost Output

Oando Plc has unveiled plans to raise up to $750 million this year for a drilling campaign that could boost output by 300%, tapping improved investor appetite for West African producers. 

Wale ‌Tinubu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the oil company, made the disclosure in a media interview, a development coming amidst hardship occasioned by the US-Iran conflict. 

The company is among a handful of local companies that have snapped up assets from oil majors in the past decade as they exit Nigeria onshore.

Mr Tinubu said rising energy prices should open more funding sources for producers in the region this year.

“We are pushing very, very hard towards getting the financing that we need to do an extensive drilling campaign,” he said.

Oando, whose production averaged just over 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in ⁠fiscal 2025, aims to drill as many as 100 wells to boost output, particularly from assets purchased from Western majors ConocoPhillips and Eni (ENI.MI), opens new tab.

While in the past the company had struggled with securing cash for drilling due to investor worries that Africa was an “unsafe environment”, the Iran war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have shifted that view, the lead executive said. “Africa is very, very peaceful compared to these regions,” he said.

Already, Tinubu said there was a shift in demand for Nigeria’s crude, with more cargoes sailing to Asia to replace Gulf oil trapped due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Oando has raised $3 billion-$4 billion in the past decade, much of it from European banks, the CEO said, the bulk of which went toward acquisitions.

European banks had now almost completely withdrawn from African hydrocarbons due to climate concerns, he said, pushing Oando to funders including the African Export-Import Bank and the African Finance Corporation, and to oil trading houses ‌including Vitol, ⁠Trafigura, Glencore and Mercuria.