How NNPC Wowed Investors, Other Stakeholders At CERAWeek Energy Conference
In March 2025, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) embarked on a mission of attracting international investors at one of the biggest energy summits, CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, Texas, USA with the aim of making the country a formidable force in global hydrocarbon and renewable energy.
The continent’s biggest energy firm did not stop at wooing investors, it initiated a talk with the US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, a meeting that will reshape Nigeria’s energy landscape and cap its dominance.
Fortunately, NNPCL was the only state-owned company from Africa that was given the honour of engaging the US government in a closed-door meeting, thanks to NNPC’s strategic positioning as Africa’s energy gladiator.
The CERAWeek held between Monday March 10, 2025 to Friday March 14, 2025. African countries like Morocco, Algeria and Libya also attended the event to bargain a new course for their oil and gas industry.
It is now crystal clear that hydrocarbons are crucial to global energy sustainability in the short to medium-term especially with the Middle East tension between Israel and Palestine and the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The Donald Trump government represented by Wright made a big announcement at the CERAWeek about its stance on hydrocarbon and policies of the Biden-administration to frustrate drilling.
“Trump administration will end the Biden administration’s irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens.
Wright called Biden’s policies “economically destructive to our businesses and politically polarizing,” adding that, “the cure was far more destructive than the disease.”
This statement effectively settled the dust raised by years of aggressive calls for decarbonisation, which had stifled investment in hydrocarbons.
NNPC, being Nigeria’s energy company is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring national energy security, driving hydrocarbon investments and contributing to state revenues through dividends to its shareholders.
Oil accounts for 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings. In Nigeria’s N54.99tn ($30bn) 2025 budget, approximately 56 per cent of the total revenue is projected to come from crude oil sales, based on a benchmark oil price of $75 per barrel and a production target of 2.06 million barrels per day.
In essence, the country needs to ‘drill baby drill’ to fund its budget and invest in gas projects, which is the country’s transition fuel.
With this, NNPC is ambitiously campaigning for energy access. This time, it pulled the bull by the horn, by directly engaging the US on its plans and possible areas of partnership between both countries- US being world power while Nigeria, a dominant force in Africa.
The meeting was attended by the US Energy Secretary and an NNPC delegation led by the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Gas) Ekperikpe Ekpo, the NNPCL Executive Vice President, Upstream, Mr. Udobong Ntia and EVP gas, Power and New Energy, Olalekan Ogunleye.
“We are looking at gas as a transition fuel. We are here to collaborate with the United States of America and as a nation, we have our own national oil company, the NNPC, that engages in those transactions with other oil companies and the government will come in in terms of policies,” the gas minister, Ekpo, told the US Secretary of Energy at the meeting.
NNPC maintains the mantra of ‘gas as a transition fuel’ as data proves that the country is more gas than an oil nation. According to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Nigeria has 209 trillion cubic feet (tcf) natural gas.
In January 2025, crude oil reserves grew to 37.5 billion barrels and expected to hit 40 billion by year-end.
The NNPC delegation told Wright about the $19.7bn Trans-Saharan gas pipeline (TSGP), which is a natural gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria.
The NNPCL also explained to the US government that the project provides Nigeria an opportunity to diversify the European Union’s gas supplies when completed by 2030.
To further convince the US government of the attractiveness of Nigeria’s energy sector, the NNPC told Wright about its 678 km West African Gas Pipeline Project to transport natural gas from Nigeria to Benin, Togo and Ghana. NNPC wants to expand the pipeline to 48 inches.
The EVP upstream of NNPC, Mr Udobong Ntia, told Wright that the company is looking for a safe cover when it comes to funding.
“We’re doing the best we can in terms of security in terms of pipeline security. We are taking care of the host communities,” Ntia said.
The NNPC convinced the US that the projects are crucial to global energy landscape and that partnering with Nigeria would boost its interest in the region.
The EVP of Gas and New Energy, Mr Ogunleye, told the Energy Secretary that funding is critical for Nigeria to execute the multi-billion-dollar projects.
Ogunleye told Wright, “For us specifically, it will be positive for the US to continue to maintain a positive signal to the international community. In the last five years, banks have been reticent in funding oil and gas projects
“It is important that the message is reiterated. Funding is a major issue, even though we are Africa-centric, using the African Development Bank (AfDB), Afreximbank and we are creating an energy bank.
“This is the area that the US should galvanise funding for oil and gas projects, especially in Africa, specifically transformational projects like the African Atlantic pipeline.”
These gas projects were described by US Energy Secretary as “transformative projects” that must work.
Pleased with the engagement, the US Energy Secretary invited the delegation to Washington DC for more talks and Wright will also visit Nigeria, signalling a new dawn that will attract mega investments from US big oil companies.
Wright said, “This will be fantastic for Nigeria and all of Africa. Energy for Nigeria is great. Gas development is great.
“You (Nigeria) are such an energy power that is helping neighbours in West Africa, North Africa and, by extension, Europe. This is how we make the world better.
“This is all music to my ears. We need you in DC to know how we can help you and specific things we can do for you in terms of financial institutions.
“We do want to help when it comes to capital so that you can develop these projects. Of course, I will visit. We will have to work on that and believe me, I will. I would love to see it happen this year.”
With this stride, it seems the company has well and truly accomplished a key mission by meeting with the world’s super power to negotiate energy access for Nigeria in the midst of a seeming shift in global trade order.
The NNPC did not stop at this. The company also engaged foreign investors present at the CERAWeek, making NNPC the most sought-after African energy firm as both existing investors like ExxonMobil, Chevron and prospective investors scrambled for opportunity to engage with the NNPC about investing in Nigeria.
The interests came after NNPC cleared all doubts relating to government’s policy and security of assets in the Niger Delta region.
The EVP Upstream, Ntia highlighted how the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the three Executive Orders on Oil and Gas by President Bola Tinubu in 2024 brought back certainty and predictability in the country’s oil and gas industry.
It is clear that Nigeria is winning the war against crude oil theft and vandalism as crude oil production hit 1.74mbpd in January 2025. These arguments led to rising international interest in Nigeria at the CERAWeek.
The Deputy Director-General of the Planning Department, CNPC, Pinxian Zhang, said during the investment call hosted by the NNPC and the National Oil Corporation (NOC) of Libya that the company is targeting countries with effective regulation.
Zhang said, “We are exploring opportunities in countries such as Nigeria, Namibia, and Angola.”
Indian firms seem to be also interested in the vast opportunities advertised by the NNPCL.
The Managing Director of ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), Rajarshi Gupta, said Nigeria is one of the countries that OVL will explore.
How NNPC Wowed Investors, Other Stakeholders At CERAWeek Energy Conference is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
