Oando PLC, one of Africa’s foremost indigenous energy players, has reported a 63% year-on-year increase in upstream production for the first half of 2025, a performance driven by infrastructure consolidation, improved operational uptime, and strategic asset acquisition. The announcement follows a busy six months in which the company also secured operatorship of Block KON 13 in Angola, marking its entry into the Kwanza Basin—further reinforcing a cross-border growth strategy that reflects the increasing regionalisation of Africa’s energy markets.
The company’s unaudited results for H1 2025 show a daily average production of 37,012 barrels of oil equivalent (boepd), despite broader revenue pressure from declining petroleum product imports and weaker trading margins. This performance is underpinned by its recent acquisition of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and a sharp focus on infrastructure upgrades and production optimisation. Crude oil output rose 77%, while gas production—an area central to Africa’s energy transition—grew by 54%.
What stands out from Oando’s trajectory is not just the improved production metrics, but how its upstream strategy is aligning with broader continental trends. African oil and gas producers are increasingly moving toward integration—both across value chains and national borders. With the energy landscape shifting toward regional refining, reduced reliance on fuel imports, and growing local content policies, Oando’s activities hint at a repositioning of indigenous firms to remain competitive while navigating these transitions.
In this context, the company’s emphasis on gas development and operational resilience carries particular weight. As natural gas continues to be framed as a key transitional fuel for Africa—due to its lower carbon intensity and ability to support industrial growth—Oando’s increasing gas volumes and infrastructure investments contribute to this evolving narrative.
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From a sustainability standpoint, Oando also reported achieving 12.3 million hours of operations without lost-time injuries (LTI), an indicator of its internal focus on safety, systems reliability, and risk management. Though such metrics do not directly measure environmental performance, they do speak to the company’s ability to implement rigorous, long-term operational discipline—an essential trait as the industry faces mounting pressure to align growth with environmental accountability.
Financially, the Group posted ₦1.72 trillion in revenue for the period, a 15% decline largely due to weaker trading activity. Nevertheless, its profit-after-tax remained stable at ₦63 billion, reflecting strength in upstream earnings. In parallel, its trading arm lifted 14 cargoes (12.9 million barrels) of crude oil in H1 2025, up from 10 cargoes the previous year, while also expanding into LNG and metals—sectors that will likely see rising demand as the continent pursues diversification and industrialisation.
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The company’s future-facing capital programme includes $250–270 million in capex, dedicated not only to new wells and infrastructure, but also to ESG-focused projects, with a stated goal of achieving 20% cost efficiency. Oando has signalled plans to raise equity and restructure debt, following the expansion of its Reserve-Based Lending (RBL) facility to $375 million. These steps are designed to give the company the financial flexibility required to scale operations across its growing 1 billion boe upstream portfolio.
Oando’s strategic moves come at a time when the African energy sector is under intense pressure to meet multiple—sometimes competing—goals: scaling energy access, enabling low-carbon transitions, maximising revenue from natural resources, and preparing for the long-term decline of fossil fuel demand. For local companies like Oando, the path forward lies not only in higher output, but also in smarter, more adaptive strategies that respond to both market dynamics and sustainability imperatives.
As African nations take greater control of their energy futures—through regional infrastructure, policy alignment, and indigenous investment—Oando’s cross-border expansion, operational improvements, and diversified trading footprint position it as a key case study in how African firms can navigate complexity while maintaining relevance and resilience.
