…Seplat restores 29 wells to production
…Oando projects $270m on drilling in H2
Nigeria’s leading indigenous oil companies are increasingly turning to the revival of idle wells rather than embarking on costly new drilling campaigns as they look to squeeze more value from existing assets in a volatile market environment.
This shift, according to findings by BusinessDay, is driven by cost-efficiency, speed of execution and a desire to maximise existing infrastructure. It is being spearheaded by firms such as Oando PLC and Seplat Energy, both of which have stepped up well restoration efforts with measurable results.
Information from Oando’s latest financial statement showed the company has deliberately prioritised ‘low-hanging opportunities’ such as well reactivations, rig-less interventions, and flowline repairs.
These measures, Oando said, have already delivered “quick, capital-efficient production gains.”
The company reported a 145 percent year-on-year increase in crude oil output to 9,012 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in the first half (H1) of 2025, largely supported by the reactivation of previously shut-in wells and enhanced plant reliability.
In his mid-year market update, Wale Tinubu, group CEO of Oando Plc, outlined a focused growth plan built around “accelerating upstream monetisation through drilling and production assurance, strengthening trading performance, and executing capital restructuring initiatives to restore balance sheet flexibility.”
He said with a focused strategy and a clear execution roadmap, “we remain committed to delivering sustained value to our shareholders.”
Looking ahead to the second half (H2) of 2025, Oando plans to begin drilling two new wells, while maintaining a full-year production target of 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd)–40,000 boepd.
“This will be driven by a balanced capital programme of three new wells and six rig-less interventions,” Oando said.
The company has budgeted $250 million–$270 million in capital expenditure for the H2 of the year, covering drilling, infrastructure upgrades, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.
For Seplat Energy, the well restoration programme has emerged as one of the company’s most value-accretive strategies in 2025.
During Q2 2025 alone, Seplat worked on 19 idle wells, taking the total to 29 wells addressed so far in 2025. Of these, 22 have been successfully restored to production, adding 14,900 barrels per day of gross production capacity in the quarter.
Year-to-date, the idle well programme has delivered 25,900 barrels per day of additional gross production capacity from the 22 wells brought back online.
“We remain on track to meet our previously upgraded target of 50 well work-overs from the idle well inventory during 2025,” Seplat Energy said in its latest financial statement.
Working interest production across Seplat’s offshore assets averaged 79,660 boepd in the H1 of 2025, with crude and condensates accounting for 86 percent of the output, natural gas making up nine percent, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) for five percent.
The Q2 production climbed 11 percent quarter-on-quarter to 83,797 boepd, driven by production optimisation, efficiency gains from maintenance and integrity work, including a major push to bring idle wells back online.
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Why idle wells are back in vogue
Idle well restoration is not new to the oil industry, but its renewed prominence among Nigerian independents is a function of economics and logistics. Restoring an existing well typically costs a fraction of drilling a new one and can deliver production gains in weeks rather than years.
“Given the capital constraints facing many operators, especially in frontier markets like Nigeria, it makes sense to chase the barrels you can bring online quickly and cheaply,” said an upstream analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity.
By focusing on mature fields with proven reserves, companies can also sidestep some of the geological risks that make new drilling campaigns unpredictable.
“In this environment, the market is rewarding cash flow more than reserves growth,” the analyst added.
For the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Udobong Ntia, executive vice president, upstream, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is on course to save between $3 billion and $4.5 billion in operational costs this year.
Speaking at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Ntia noted that the plan was the result of recent cost optimisation efforts and part of the company’s broader drive to make Nigeria’s oil more competitive.
“Oil in the ground doesn’t matter to anybody. It has to be extracted for the country to get the benefit,” Ntia, who represented Bayo Ojulari, group CEO of NNPC, said at the event.
According to him, Nigeria’s daily crude production has risen from 1.4 million barrels in December 2024 to over 1.8 million barrels in July 2025, an increase of about 400,000 barrels in just six to seven months, attributing it to oil wells’ reviving projects and improved infrastructure reliability.
Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), said Nigeria’s upstream sector is operating under a globally competitive regulatory regime following the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021.
He highlighted the Commission’s 19 enabling regulations, competitive royalty regimes, zero hydrocarbon tax on certain projects, and a comprehensive regulatory action plan aimed at reversing the country’s decline in sub-Saharan Africa’s investment share from 44 percent in 2014 to 30 per cent in 2022.
