Africa-focused oil and gas exploration and production company, LEKOIL Nigeria Limited, is repositioning its Nigerian portfolio for accelerated development and production, with the company targeting a long-term production capacity of 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The company disclosed the strategy during Africa Oil Week 2026, where its management held discussions with investors, policymakers, operators and other stakeholders on the future of its assets and the broader Nigerian oil and gas industry.
LEKOIL said its next phase of growth would centre on developing existing reserves, commercialising its gas resources and moving assets through successive stages of appraisal, development and production.
The company, however, noted that the pace of implementation would depend on regulatory approvals, access to funding and the ability to establish strategic partnerships capable of supporting the development of its assets.
Chief Executive Officer, Lekan Akinyanmi, said the immediate focus was to translate the portfolio built by the company over more than a decade into sustainable commercial returns.
“We have built the portfolio. Now it is about execution, production and creating value,” he said.
Akinyanmi said LEKOIL's experience in Nigeria had provided the company with a deeper understanding of the country's geological prospects and operating environment, which he described as important to the successful advancement of its assets.
“We have more than a decade of experience operating and investing in Nigeria. We understand the geology, the regulatory environment and, importantly, what it takes to operate here,” he said.
LEKOIL's Nigerian portfolio cuts across different stages of the upstream oil and gas value chain, spanning exploration, appraisal, development and production.
Its interests include the Otakikpo field in PML 11, as well as OPL 276, OPL 325, OPL 310 and OPL 241.
Otakikpo is already a producing asset, while the company's other interests include established discoveries and exploration prospects that LEKOIL intends to progressively advance towards development and eventual production.
The company said the strategy would enable it to maximise the value of assets already within its portfolio rather than relying solely on new acquisitions to drive future growth.
General Manager, Corporate Communications, Hamilton Esi, said LEKOIL would also seek strategic partners with the financial resources, technology and technical capabilities required to move the assets forward.
“Our priority is to move each asset to its next value point as efficiently as possible; we are looking for partners who complement what we already bring, whether through capital, technology, technical expertise or development capability,” he said.
The proposed partnerships are expected to play an important role in helping the company overcome some of the capital and technical requirements associated with taking oil and gas discoveries from the exploration and appraisal stages into commercial production.
Beyond its corporate growth ambitions, LEKOIL said continued exploration and reserves development would be critical to Nigeria's efforts to increase crude oil production.
The company noted that the country's target of raising crude oil output to three million barrels per day could not be achieved solely through production from existing fields, stressing the need for sustained investment in exploration, appraisal and development of new reserves.
Company Secretary and General Manager, Legal, Gloria Iroegbunam, said the country's production ambitions would require a sustained commitment to discovering and developing additional resources.
She said the ability to attract such investment would depend, in part, on creating a regulatory environment that provides sufficient confidence for companies willing to commit substantial capital to exploration and field development.
The position reflects a broader challenge facing Nigeria's upstream sector, where efforts to raise production have increasingly focused not only on bringing existing shut-in or underperforming assets back to production but also on attracting fresh investment into exploration and development.
For LEKOIL, the company's long-term 100,000 barrels-per-day ambition will therefore depend on the successful progression of its existing assets, the development of discovered reserves, commercialisation of gas resources and the establishment of partnerships capable of funding and executing projects.
With Otakikpo already contributing to production, the company is seeking to build on its existing operating base while progressively unlocking value from its wider portfolio.
LEKOIL said its participation at Africa Oil Week 2026 provided an opportunity to engage potential investors and strategic partners as it works towards the next phase of its Nigerian growth strategy.