SAIPEC 2025: ‘Africa Should Prioritize Regional Collaboration, Form Alliance to Develop Projects’ – Ogunsanya, PETAN Chairman

Ahead of the 2025 Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, SAIPEC, the African Association of Energy Journalists and Publishers, AJERAP, co-hosted by Camara Sanna, The Gambia-based Media Consultant, held a one-on-one interview with Engr. Wole Ogunsanya, PETAN Chairman, about the SAIPEC 2025 conference features and opportunities coupled with the SAIPEC Buyer Programme deliverables dedicated to business development between industry stakeholders and players.

Engr. Ogunsanya also provided deep insights into several issues in the African oil and gas industry and advocated for regional collaboration between African countries including companies to build capacity, as well as develop projects across the continent. Excerpts:

AJERAP: Please tell us about yourself and PETAN’s activities.

Ogunsanya: My name is Engr. Wole Ogunsanya. I’m the CEO and Managing Director of GeoPlex based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. We provide oil and gas services in Nigeria and other African nations. GeoPlex is among the members of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, PETAN.

PETAN is an association of Nigerian Indigenous Technical Oilfield Service Companies in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry.

PETAN is the leading, local content organization in the oil and gas space in Nigeria. The Organization is 30 years old. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary.

We engage the governments, regulators, and the industry as a whole. As an association, we advocate for policies and processes to enhance our operations in a way that is a win-win for everybody. I always tell people that a lot of us look at the economics of oil and gas, and that’s one of the things that drive us very strongly in PETAN. The economics of oil and gas are essentially working for our government. If the price of oil is $80 per barrel, the government takes royalty, depending on which part of the world we are referring to. In Nigeria, there is a minimum of 15 percent. If you look at the joint venture operations, the Nigerian Government through NNPCL is the largest shareholder. When you add 15 percent to 55 or 60 percent of the equity in the Joint Venture, much value is going to our government.

We’re working for our government and helping the government to generate revenue. We are also helping the government to create jobs by developing capacity within Nigeria.

We are advocating and advising the government to ensure that our oil industry is developed to retain value. PETAN members are owners of businesses in the oil and gas industry. We will continue to add value and develop local content in Nigeria and in another Sub-Saharan African country.

AJERAP: As preparations are ongoing for the ninth edition of SAIPEC in Nigeria, what are PETAN’s main focus areas for SAIPEC 2025? What should we expect from this year’s event in addressing the critical issues affecting Africa’s energy, oil, and gas industry?

Ogunsanya: During PETAN’s 30th Anniversary, our theme was “Navigating the Next,” highlighting our focus on the future of Africa’s oil and gas sector. Over the years, we have built significant capacity through Nigeria’s local content law, and now, we are prioritizing industry-wide collaboration.

For SAIPEC 2025, PETAN is focusing on consolidating these efforts by strengthening policies that promote local content and maximizing the in-country value chain. Our goal is to ensure that the capacity we have built in one area can be transferred to other areas, allowing value to remain within Nigeria and across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The emphasis this year is on leveraging past achievements to create even greater value for African energy stakeholders.

AJERAP: PETAN introduced the ‘Buyer Programme’ as part of SAIPEC’s deliverables to connect buyers and sellers in the African oil and gas industry. What are the modalities and opportunities available in the SAIPEC Buyer Programme? Is it exclusively for African businesses, or is it open to international companies and investors?

Ogunsanya: The “Buyer Programme” is open to everyone, both African and international companies. Due to its growing popularity, this year’s SAIPEC exhibition is the largest we have ever hosted. We have already sold out all available booths and have had to request additional exhibition space to accommodate more participants.

The programme is designed to facilitate collaborations between buyers and sellers, particularly those seeking specific technologies and services.

PETAN is also exploring financial models where banks and other institutions can support asset owners in scaling up production.

For example, if an asset owner needs to produce 10,000 barrels per day, PETAN members can provide equipment and expertise to ensure production while securing a share of the revenue.

Many international companies, including Chinese firms, are participating, bringing in equipment and technology that can be applied in multiple African countries, such as Angola, Mozambique, Uganda, and Nigeria.

This is in line with global trade practices, where collaboration helps generate higher value for the host economy. If partnering with a foreign company allows us to earn 20 cents per dollar on crude oil production but translates to $5 of economic value retained within Africa, it is a strategic decision to maximize local benefits.

SAIPEC 2025 will showcase such opportunities for partnerships, technology transfers, and financial structuring to drive sustainable growth in Africa’s oil and gas sector.

AJERAP: What kind of collaborative ventures exist between PETAN and some African countries?

Ogunsanya: I know that the NNPCL and The Gambian Petroleum Corporation are collaborating in some areas. We already have that collaboration ongoing. Most of the African countries that are into oil and gas already established their local content policies. The companies in those countries are already having one form of collaboration or another.

We are all meeting again at the SAIPEC. In fact, there is a special forum that is created at the event where all leaders in the continent are coming together.

We are also meeting with them in Houston during the Offshore Technology Conference, OTC.

The past administration of PETAN did a lot of work before. We are building on that right now.

So the intention is to develop capacity. When you look at Nigeria, we’re at the forefront of local content because many Nigerians have worked in this industry for more than seventy years. It took so many years for us to learn. The way technology works is that the owners will want to take advantage of it as long as they can. They get the patents from their governments, and other governments across the world to ensure that they’re able to maximize the returns on what they have created.

So for us in Nigeria, we felt that we paid the price. It took us so many years of learning from these guys to get to where we are. We are telling our African brothers not to do the same. They shouldn’t wait for seventy years.

With regional collaboration between African countries, you can learn faster and avoid making mistakes. Africa should prioritize the African partnership. If there is a project in Angola and there is a current company that already has the know-how compared to a company coming from other nations, the Angolan regulator should prioritize that African alliance to ensure that we’re able to retain value in the continent. This speaks volumes.

As I said, we already have a lot of collaboration efforts ongoing with PETAN companies, including Ghanaian, Mozambique, and Equatorial Guinea companies. PETAN is already aligning with them, especially on project opportunities within each other’s country. We will continue to build on it.

AJERAP: What is the driving force behind PETAN’s influence in Africa?

Ogunsanya: PETAN’s influence in Africa is pretty straightforward to understand. We have been doing this for thirty years, ahead of many of our African partners. So it’s easier for us to transfer knowledge as well as support other African countries to retain value within the continent. Local content started about twenty-five or thirty years ago. Nigeria started putting policies in place to advance local content, which led to the development of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content. Development Act (NOGICD ACT). It is a law that established local content in Nigeria. So, our driving force is that we are ahead of other African nations over the years. We want values to be retained in Africa.

In my place, we have a saying that when you’re a rich man in a family that is poor, you’re also a poor man. So, there is no amount of pride and know-how that we give to ourselves in Nigeria if our brothers in Africa still need to catch up, so we see that as a responsibility. We should be out there supporting the African countries. This is what we are doing in Uganda, Kenya, and other African nations.

AJERAP: What are the challenges and way forward as PETAN works toward enhancing the African petroleum industry?

Ogunsanya: One of the main challenges is what we call portfolio companies. Essentially, these companies have not built capacity. They’ve not put investments in place. They’re essentially prohibiting the contract award systems in the industry. In those days, we have people who invested millions of dollars in equipment, and training facilities, that created and retained more value in-country. However, these portfolio companies take percentage and outsource work to other companies, not necessarily delivering value to Nigeria.

We are working with the NCDMB to manage local content in Nigeria. We have let them know that we will continue to work with them to ensure that the vetting process of qualifying a company that can provide the technical service required for a project. Essentially, we want to ensure that contracts should be given to those companies that have the necessary capacities. We’re working very closely to manage that with the regulator. NCDMB regulates local content and we need to commend the leadership of NCDMD. They are driving local content with us to ensure that the values and the requirements of local content are retained in Nigeria.

I’ll give you an example. The NCDMB has a policy that favors indigenous companies that have invested in rigs. This makes sense because they’re going to use it to provide more capacity and more rigs.

The more rigs we have in the country, the more wells we can drill. Not just drilling more wells, but the revenue from those wells is retained in the country, thus adding to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

Another challenge is inadequate funding. In Nigeria, the capacity of banks to fund projects is limited. Funding, in whatever project, whatever capacity you’re building, is essential to that.

In Nigeria, the local banks cannot be compared to the banks in Europe and the United States. One of the things that we would applaud the President for is that the time of the contract has been increased to five years. Before, it used to be three years plus one year of renewal.

When you approach a financial institution for a loan, you have to essentially mix the financing and the principal and interest rate within a short period. Now, we have expanded that sense to the policies of this current government and we have given our members, more time. They can spread their repayments over five, or seven years, which makes it easier for them to be able to develop their company’s projects.

AJERAP: How is PETAN leveraging technology to support the growth of the petroleum industry in Nigeria?

Ogunsanya: There are a lot of smart people across the world. This industry has existed for a hundred years. So there’s a lot of technology and know-how across the world.

For us in PETAN, we are not shying away from acquiring technology-based facilities. The same technology you find in North Sea, Aberdeen, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and Houston, is exactly what you will find in Nigeria.

For us in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa, we must match the requirements. We must match the know-how to ensure that we produce that barrel at the same rates. What we have added in PETAN is developing local know-how and local technology. We call it, home advantage. Those companies that have been operating in this industry for several years now realize that as you go across the world, they still have the know-how to the regional way of finding oil and gas. The know-how model in Saudi Arabia is slightly different from what we would do in a Nigerian land-swam environment. As they have laboratories, they are designing, fluids and chemicals. I worked for a multinational company before I left, to start a company as a member of PETAN. These multinationals do transfer their employees a lot. But we’re not going anywhere. We’re in Africa.

We are active in Africa. So this cumulative experience that we have, we are seeing it in the industry in our service delivery. There is evidence that we’ve developed our capacities just as in other parts of the world. We are spreading capacities across the African continent. Some PETAN companies have experiences, longer than the other members. We are now impacting the experiences that we have within the organization to make sure that most of our companies are as good as any other company in the world. They can deliver that service as good in Nigeria and as good as any other place.

Looking back over the past three to five years, I think a lot of advancement has been made when it comes to technology sourced from within the African continent.

For instance, we found recently that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was built exclusively in Nigeria.

AJERPA: Does PETAN have innovation laboratories where students can innovate and come up with African-based petroleum technologies?

Ogunsanya: PETAN has established an endowment fund in the University of Port Harcourt where we’re bringing the academia and, of course, the industry to ensure that we’re able to research and develop the know-how as well as customized solutions. The same plan is going on at the University of Ibadan.

We are planning for one other university in the northern part of the country.

AJERAP: Can you comment on domestic refining?

Ogunsanya:  We know what the challenge is increase production to supply our refineries. We know NNPCL is putting in a lot of effort to refurbish its refineries, which have about 450,000 bpd capacity. If we’re able to get half of that working along with the 650,000 bpd of Dangote refinery, Nigeria should be talking about a million barrels of oil refining per day.

We must produce 1,000,000 barrels for these local refineries. We don’t want production to suffer to the extent that we’re not able to feed these refineries. Of course, the government still needs to generate revenue. Those of us in the forefront of the upstream sector have a lot of work to do.

We are happy that the NUPRC, regulating the upstream launched a 1,000,000-barrel initiative within 18 and 20 months. PETAN is among the special committees to advise and ensure that this becomes a reality.

Now, we’re working very closely with the regulators and the industry players. I’ve been in this industry for more than thirty years. I also worked outside the country for the last twenty years. Indeed, this is a very active moment. We are very excited, and we’re looking forward to a very good year in 2025 and beyond.

AJERAP: What policy changes or regulatory reforms are needed to encourage investment in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector?

Ogunsanya: About 25 years ago, Nigeria used to produce more than 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, bpd.

Today, we are producing about 1.7 million bpd, including condensate. If we want to get it right, we should know where we got it wrong. Things went wrong because of insecurity, and political challenges in the Niger Delta.

We also have issues with old pipelines. All these and other issues need to be addressed and we are making proposals to the government. If we’re going to get the production back to where it needs to be, we need to confront insecurity in the Niger Delta.

In the land and swamp, which we call brownfields, the cost of producing oil and gas is cheaper. A land rig in Nigeria can be hired for $30,000 to $35,000 a day. A rig in the offshore and deep offshore can cost $1,300 and 1,400 dollars, respectively. If you do your mathematics, you’ll see that the oil on land and swamp is about 80,000. And it’s about 35,000. Just look at those ratios.

So, if we cannot produce oil and gas at a lower cost in the land and swamp areas, where the cost of production is lower, we should be ready to pay more to produce oil and gas at a higher cost in the offshore and deep offshore. But we’ve advised the government to look at some major issues, especially insecurity and inadequate infrastructure, including pipelines, some of which were constructed in the 1960s.

Also, there are a lot of processes going on now to drill new wells in the deepwater, and we applaud the government for that because the costs of those rigs are cheaper.

As I said, we are supporting the government and we want it to focus on where we can get a maximum return on our oil and gas, which is land and swamp. The pipeline is to focus on the quality of getting funding and create incentives for people who are ready to come in. There are ways to do it. We at PETAN have advocated on how to accomplish this.

One of the things we are asking the government to do is to increase crude oil production to 2.5 million bpd. This is important because there is capacity in the country to refine a million barrels a day with Dangote Refinery and others.

If you look at our current production from our proposed 2.5 million bpd, we have 1.5 million bpd left. Half of it is owned by the joint ventures and the government through NNPCL. The government needs it to generate revenue, no matter the level of oil prices in the global market. The government should have a policy that enables producers to reduce the cost of production under a low crude prices regime. This policy is not new. That’s what they’re doing in Middle Eastern nations like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries, whatever happens to the price of oil, they ensure that they sustain their production. They might come down a little bit if the price comes down. But this policy would make the companies ensure that they sustain their production output. When the price of oil comes back, they’re the first to start taking advantage of the revenue.

In Nigeria, we are still struggling to catch up with the production that we’re supposed to have. Whatever we cannot produce, others will produce and take their revenues. They’re not going to bring their revenues or be nice to us. Our government should develop a policy that mandates companies to maintain their production outputs based on volume.

As I said earlier, are we going to get to a situation after all the efforts of the government and the industry to build production back, can we afford for that production to crash and the price of oil to go down so that we’re not even able to supply the local refineries? If there is no policy, if there is no mandate for the exploration and production company to maintain a minimum production, come rain or shine, our 2.5 million production target will be achieved. It might happen in two years, three years, five years, or more. But it is achievable if the right policies are developed.

AJERAP: What are PETAN’s forecasts regarding the key enablers to drive growth across the African oil and gas industry, specifically for 2025 and, beyond?

Ogunsanya: For 2025, we see a lot of momentum towards increasing oil and gas production in Nigeria. The economic implications of that is huge.

Today, Dangote is importing crude oil from the United States because we are not able to produce enough to feed the refineries. So, we see a very robust 2025 in Nigeria, going into 2026 at least.

Also in Africa, it’s the same. Uganda is very busy. The wells are being drilled. Uganda is one of the Sub-Saharan African countries we are very close to. The regulators in Uganda, the Uganda Petroleum Commission are very close to the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Board, NUPRC. They are essentially learning from us. They are going to be attending our event, SAIPEC 2025 on Tuesday next week.

There are also lots of efforts going on in Mozambique to enhance investment.

Deepwater operations will continue to grow in Africa.

In Nigeria, we are working to increase production.

A lot of activities are also ongoing in Libya and we are all working together as African brothers.

Recently, I met with some of them in Europe. Libya produces 1.4 million barrels of oil per day. They’re sure that this year, they will be at 1.6 million bpd, which is the peak production.

PETAN sees a robust 2025 and 2026. This means that we have the opportunity to provide services with increased collaboration. Libya is asking us to bring equipment to come and support them.

AJERAP: How will the return of President Trump impact African nations?

Ogunsanya: In the USA, the new government there is pro-oil and gas. In terms of what the price of oil would be, the new government in the US will have a lot of influence. It will bring a lot of influence and pressure on what the cost of the barrel of oil would be.

In the economic model, a cheaper price of oil, not crushing the oil price is good for the economy.

For us in Africa, that is good for our people. We need to put the right perspectives and policies in place.

In every continent and country, we should design the economy to benefit the people. There is virtually very little influence in what happened in the United States politics, and governance, to the Nigerian oil and gas industry today.

We have refineries that can refine up to 850,0000 barrels of oil per day, and we don’t have sufficient oil to supply them.

So, that has nothing to do with the United States. It has to do with us.

We need to increase our production.

The US government is not going to stop us from giving crude oil to the Dangote refinery. They have no control over what we do with our refinery in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna.

Operators in Europe are worried about Dangote Refinery because they are not going to be exporting much to Africa anymore.

We should focus on ourselves and ensure we do what is good for our people and economy. I always tell people that if you look at the renewable energy space, there are two continents that drive renewable energy the most. They are the Europeans and the Chinese.

Coincidentally, those two continents do not have a lot of natural energy supply. So, we should focus on using them for our people before the Europeans and the Chinese stop buying them.

The local content law has since been passed. Currently, a lot of collaborations are ongoing among and across the industry. We’re looking at consolidating all efforts, policies, and laws that have been put in place to enable local content and to make sure the value continues to be retained in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa to connect, buyers and sellers.