Table of Contents
Ten years ago, the international oil majors ran the show in Nigeria. They held the best acreage, set production targets, and largely dictated the terms of engagement with regulators in Abuja. That world is gone.
Today, indigenous producers pump more than half of Nigeria's crude, and no one has done more to engineer that reversal than Wale Tinubu, the group chief executive of Oando Plc. Under his watch, Oando transformed from a petroleum marketing outfit into sub-Saharan Africa's most prominent indigenous energy group, a company now listed on both the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
That track record was on full display this week when Adegbite Falade, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group and chief executive of Aradel Holdings, visited Oando's Lagos offices for a strategic sit-down with Ainojie Irune, managing director of Oando Energy Resources.
The meeting covered coordination among indigenous producers, sharper advocacy with regulators, and what it takes to sustain the momentum local operators have spent a decade building.
"Over the last decade, indigenous producers have shifted the centre of gravity in Nigeria's upstream industry," Falade said. "Today, IPPG members account for more than half of national production. Oando is a solid part of that story."
Falade singled out Tinubu by name, crediting his sustained backing as central to IPPG's institutional growth. He also praised Oando for committing resources and personnel to the group's 10th anniversary activities, calling it evidence of a company invested in the industry's long-term future, not just its own quarterly numbers.
The praise tracks with what Tinubu has built. In 2024, Oando completed its acquisition of Eni's Nigerian Agip Oil Company, one of the biggest upstream deals in recent Nigerian history. By the first nine months of 2025, the company had posted a 59% jump in production and a 164% rise in profit after tax, reaching 210 billion naira.
Irune, speaking on behalf of OER, laid out the operating philosophy that Tinubu has long championed: disciplined execution, strong governance, and collective advocacy as the non-negotiable pillars of sustainable indigenous production.
Nigeria's petroleum sector has never lacked ambition among local players. What has often been missing is the institutional muscle to back it up. Tinubu has spent three decades arguing, and now proving, that those things can be built.
The next fight, according to both Falade and Irune, is in the policy arena, pushing regulators and lawmakers to write rules that reflect how Nigeria's upstream actually works now, not how it worked when Shell and Chevron were calling the shots.
