Oilserv Nigeria Limited, one of Africa’s leading oil and gas servicing companies, has called on International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating across the continent to prioritise partnerships with African Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) firms.
The company stressed that building capacity and expanding opportunities within the continent’s oil and gas sector would be best achieved through deeper collaboration with indigenous contractors.
The call was made during the ongoing Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) 2025, where Emeka Okwuosa, Oilserv group chief executive officer, represented by Cephalus Wariri, the company’s Chief of Staff, emphasised that African EPC firms have demonstrated the expertise and capacity to deliver world-class projects.
Okwuosa noted that Oilserv’s track record over the past three decades underscores this capacity. Since inception, the company has played a leading role in executing complex oil and gas construction and engineering projects in Nigeria, while gradually expanding its footprint across other African economies.
“We have handled huge Turn-Key projects and are currently driving Africa’s biggest gas project. We have also developed flow stations and delivered critical infrastructure in collaboration with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL),” Wariri said.
Beyond Nigeria, Oilserv has expanded its operations into Benin, Ghana, Senegal, and other African markets. Wariri explained that the company’s Pan-African strategy is deliberate, given the need to strengthen indigenous participation in the continent’s energy sector.
“As a major provider of oil and gas sector infrastructure, we have all it takes to offer oil companies quality services and timely deliverables. Having consolidated our presence in Nigeria, we are now ready to extend these services to more African countries,” he added.
The company has also relied on partnerships with multilateral institutions to drive growth. Oilserv has consistently leveraged the support of Afreximbank, which has provided both financial and technical backing for its expansion.
Despite these achievements, Wariri pointed out that access to financing remains a major challenge for indigenous firms. Local banks, he argued, lack the capacity to provide the scale of funding required for multi-billion-dollar energy projects, leaving companies dependent on multilaterals such as Afreximbank.
“As an intra-African construction company, we conceived Nigeria’s most ambitious pipeline project — the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline — in 2014, and we have continued to deliver on it despite natural and operational challenges. However, financing remains a major hurdle,” he said.
In addition to financing, Oilserv highlighted broader challenges such as insecurity, ease of doing business constraints, and foreign exchange instability, all of which affect project execution across the continent.
Wariri urged African governments and financial institutions to address these systemic issues if local firms are to compete effectively with foreign contractors. He also raised concerns about the lack of policy uniformity across African countries, which creates bottlenecks for cross-border EPC projects.
“The absence of uniform business and regulatory frameworks across African states slows down progress. Even basic issues such as visa logistics and travel create unnecessary delays, and time is money in our business,” he stressed.
Oilserv believes that greater involvement of African EPC firms in IOC-led projects would be a game-changer for the continent. By prioritising local contractors, IOCs could help build sustainable capacity, retain value within Africa, and accelerate infrastructure development.
“All oil companies need infrastructure to progress. We are ready to provide those facilities, but it is important for IOCs to prioritise African companies that have already proven their capacity,” Wariri concluded.
Wariri noted that finance has been a major deal affecting projects, indicating that “for African expansion and cross-border business strategy, the local banks can’t do that much without syndication, and we need multilateral like Afreximbank to support such strategic drives.
