Veteran petroleum geologist and Chairman of Renaissance Africa Energy Company, Dr Layi Fatona, has stated that international oil companies only stay in Nigeria for profit and divest their assets once returns begin to dwindle.
Speaking recently at the Oida Fireside Chat, an industry experience-sharing platform sponsored by Oida Energy Group, Fatona warned that indigenous companies must be prepared to fill the gap left by the exit of foreign operators.
In a statement by Oida Energy on Friday, Fatima was said to have made it clear that “international oil companies, popularly called IOCs, come for profit and divest their commercial interests when profit dwindles. Sharing his experience in the industry in the past 50 years, Fatona emphasised the power of collaboration and partnership as a veritable facility for overcoming the challenges of talent and funding.
He said collaborations that focus on goals and ignore differences made it possible for indigenous companies to forge consortia that pooled the right set of capacities that enabled Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited to acquire the assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited.
Fatona noted, “It would have been painful if the opportunity to acquire SPDC was lost to a foreign company,” stressing that no indigenous independent company could have acquired SPDC at the time. He noted the challenge to retain SPDC’s assets for Nigerian entities compelled over 120 local interests into several failed partnership attempts.
He confessed that the Renaissance Africa consortium was made possible by the compelling goal to acquire the Shell asset, adding that the existing partnership in the ND Western Limited recommended itself for the Renaissance consortium.
Fatona, who pioneered integrated oil and gas operations at the Ogbele marginal field, identified human capital development as the biggest challenge for independents, warning that “the petroleum industry does not recruit from the streets.”
On funding, he urged companies to embrace unconventional financing methods and dismissed fears of credit drought linked to climate activism, saying local options remain available. Fatona insisted that fossil fuels will continue to play a long-term role in Nigeria and Africa’s energy development, saying the country deserves affordable energy.
“Energy access must be prioritised over climate sentiments,” he stressed, adding that new energy sources are still emerging but far from replacing oil and gas.
The Oida Energy fireside chat, hosted by a broadcaster, Ms Adefemi Akinsanya, drew industry leaders, including the outgoing Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers in Nigeria, Emeka Ene; the Africa Regional Director of SPE, Dr Riverson Oppong; and the President of SPE International, Olivier Houzé.
Oida Energy Group, which comprises sister companies—Xenergi Limited and Empower FZE—prides itself as Africa’s pioneer well intervention and brown asset development company. While “Xenergi Limited leads in natural gas processing, the Enpower FZE provides infrastructure-enhanced hubs, excelling in manufacturing and cross-border trade facilitation through the development and operations of free trade zones and eco-industrial parks.”
On pioneering integrated onsite operations at the Ogbele marginal field, Fatona revealed that the model was a business strategy to escape gas flare penalty and arrest production losses to thieving vandals. The Ogbele field integrated operations, he noted, have become a model for resilience.
