President Bola Tinubu has approved a sweeping new deepwater oil and gas investment framework that Nigeria says could unlock as much as $50 billion, as Africa’s top crude producer moves to revive stalled offshore projects and compete harder for global energy capital.
The framework, announced by presidential aide Bayo Onanuga, scraps the old practice of negotiating incentives project by project and replaces it with standard rules for qualifying deepwater developments. It takes effect through the Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives (Tax Remission) Order, 2026, and lets the Nigerian National Petroleum Company amend eligible Production Sharing Contracts to apply the new terms.
Shell’s roughly $10 billion Bonga South West development — one of the country’s biggest undeveloped deepwater prospects, long stuck without a final investment decision — is expected to be among the first major projects to benefit. The move follows direct talks between Tinubu and Shell chief executive Wael Sawan on what it would take to unlock Nigeria’s deepwater pipeline.
Nigeria’s upstream regulator says 22 major offshore projects worth between $30 billion and $50 billion are expected between 2026 and 2030, and that more than $57 billion in Field Development Plans have been approved since 2024. Officials say qualifying projects will be expected to maximise local execution — engineering, fabrication, marine logistics and project management — as Nigeria works to position itself as a regional hub for deepwater project delivery rather than just a crude exporter.
Source: africa.businessinsider.com
