Nigeria’s First Exploration and Petroleum Development Company is eying gas exploration in Tanzania, East Africa, reflecting a wider push by the country’s energy companies to grow outside the home market, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
First E&P signed a deal with the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation last month for the technical assessment and potential development of the Mnazi Bay North Block in southern Tanzania, near fields where vast gas reserves were found in Mozambique.
The company’s Chief Strategy Officer, George Toriola, said the agreement’s timeline for preliminary studies is six months with an option to mutually extend. “Both of us are very keen to do this quickly,” he assured.
First E&P, which produces an average of 57,000 barrels of oil a day, joins other Nigerian energy firms seeking growth opportunities abroad in the wake of their recent acquisitions of onshore and shallow water assets sold off by international oil majors in the West African nation, the Bloomberg report added.
That extends to the downstream business as well. Oando Trading was chosen earlier this year by Trinidad and Tobago’s Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd to lease the Petrotrin oil refinery. The Aiteo Group, a company owned by Nigerian tycoon Benedict Peters, is separately proposing a 200,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Mozambique.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer with massive reserves of natural gas, is encouraging investment in gas production to support power generation and improve energy security in a nation where millions of people lack a cheap and reliable supply of electricity.
First E&P is part of a consortium which acquired Shell Plc’s onshore assets for $1.3 billion in December, Bloomberg recalled. First E&P Chief Executive Officer, Ademola Adeyemi-Bero said it is raising funds and will seek investment partners to support growth.
“We have visibility as to how to access the capital required for growth and we are open to discussion,” he added.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s independent energy company, Seplat Energy Plc, has stated that Nigeria needs sustainable and secure energy that is shared by all to boost its fortunes and reshape the future.
Seplat Energy’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Roger Brown, said this on Tuesday in Lagos, at the ongoing 48th Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition (NAICE), with the theme, “Building a Sustainable Energy Future: Leveraging Technology, Supply Chain, Human Resources, and Policy.”
Represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Seplat Energy Plc, Mr. Samson Ezugworie, Brown, stated: “We are living through a time of profound transition — a global shift away from fossil fuels, toward cleaner, more inclusive energy systems. For Nigeria, this is not just a climate imperative. It is an economic one. An opportunity to reshape our future with energy that is sustainable, secure, and shared by all.”
He told conference participants that current discussions were not only about energy systems, but also the very foundations of economic opportunity, human wellbeing, and climate resilience in Nigeria.
Identifying the majority of Nigerians as lacking access to reliable electricity, with millions relying on polluting fuels for cooking and transportation, Brown said the situation was very worrisome considering the country’s natural resource endowment, talents, and entrepreneurial spirit.
He said: “Nigeria stands at a pivotal moment – caught between the urgent need to meet growing domestic energy demand and the equally pressing global call for a low-carbon future.
“If we are to build a truly sustainable energy system, we must treat it not as a single problem, but as a system-wide transformation. Technology gives us the tools to imagine and implement new energy models — from off-grid solar to smart grids, from clean cooking to digital monitoring. But it must be accessible, scalable, and locally adapted.”
The Seplat Energy CEO described supply chains as the invisible threads that connect ideas to impact, adding that from gas pipelines to solar panels, to the logistics that get energy where it’s needed most — the nation must build resilient, transparent supply networks that serve the whole country.
“Human resources — our people — are Nigeria’s greatest energy asset. If we fail to train, empower and include our engineers, our entrepreneurs, our communities — we will fall short of our ambitions.
“In the area of policy, no transformation succeeds without the enabling framework — one that is bold, consistent, and forward-looking. We need policies that unlock investment, reward innovation, and put people at the centre of the energy system,” he added.
Brown stressed: “We are not starting from scratch. There is momentum. There are technologies already being deployed, communities being electrified, and new industries emerging. But progress remains uneven, and too many are still left behind.
“This conference is an opportunity to align — across public and private sectors, across regions and disciplines — and to ask some hard but necessary questions: How do we ensure that our energy transition is not only green, but just? “How do we create access that is affordable, reliable, and inclusive? How do we design systems that work for rural villages and urban centres, for industry and households alike?”
He, therefore, called for a clearer sense of direction and a stronger commitment to collaboration as stakeholders’ journey toward a sustainable, equitable energy future for Nigeria.
Emmanuel Addeh and Peter Uzoho
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