Nigerian Oil tycoon Ahonsi Unuigbe’s Petralon exports 350,000 barrels from Dawes Island

Nigerian independent Petralon Energy has crossed 350,000 barrels of cumulative oil exports from its Dawes Island field in the eastern Niger Delta, the company announced this week, marking another production milestone on a field that was completely non-producing when the company acquired it five years ago.

The exports have moved through the Bonny Oil and Gas Terminal, roughly 30 kilometers from the field, and reflect output from two consecutive wells that Petralon has brought onstream in less than a year.

The latest well, designated DI-3, began producing March 14, 2026, and has since averaged additional output of approximately 2,800 barrels of oil per day. Combined with the earlier DI-2 well, which came onstream Oct. 18, 2025, the field's total production capacity now stands at approximately 4,800 barrels per day.

DI-2 was itself the field's first producing well since Petralon acquired the asset. When the company, operating through its subsidiary Petralon 54, took a 100% working interest in Dawes Island in 2021, the field had no production to speak of. The back-to-back drilling program that followed is among the more compressed development timelines recorded in Nigeria's marginal field program.

Dawes Island covers roughly 46 square kilometers and sits about 15 kilometers from Port Harcourt, the commercial heartland of eastern Nigeria. The field holds an estimated 17.6 million barrels of recoverable oil, and Petralon's management has made clear the current wells represent only the opening chapter of a longer development plan.

DI-3 was delivered with zero lost-time incidents, the company said, consistent with a safety record it has maintained across its operations on the field.

Ahonsi Unuigbe, Petralon's founder and chief executive, framed the achievement in terms of what Nigerian operators have demonstrated they can do.

"Our success at Dawes Island was built on the conviction that Nigerians could acquire, develop, and operate world-class energy assets," Unuigbe said. "That conviction once required courage; today, it stands on proof. The easy thing after DI-2 would have been to pause, but the determination and resilience of every single member of the Petralon team drove us forward, and DI-3 is the result of that effort."

Unuigbe added that the results depended on relationships beyond the drilling crew. "Progress like this is only possible through the strong collaboration we have built with our host communities, our regulator, and our partners. This is only the beginning of what Dawes Island can deliver."

The Dawes Island story sits within Nigeria's broader marginal field program, a government initiative designed to put stranded or underdeveloped oil assets in the hands of indigenous operators. Petralon received its licence in June 2022 and moved from development planning to drilling and first oil within a timeline that drew attention from international trading houses.

Shell Trading acknowledged the company's progress during a meeting in London earlier this year, where Rodrigo Teixeira de Abreu, Vice President for Crude Trading West at Shell's SWST unit, noted the role of leadership in advancing the project from concept to delivery. The engagement validated what Petralon's own team had been building toward.

Petralon's next phase at Dawes Island is expected to include additional wells and permanent field facilities. The company said it is focused on increasing and stabilizing production from DI-2 and DI-3 while planning that next stage of development.

The field's proximity to Port Harcourt and its existing evacuation route through Bonny gives it logistical advantages that many marginal field operators in the Niger Delta do not enjoy. The Bonny terminal handles crude from multiple onshore fields and connects to export infrastructure that can handle cargo from international buyers.

Nigeria's upstream regulator and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company have both signaled support for indigenous producers accelerating development on marginal fields, particularly as the country works to stabilize and grow overall production. Petralon's drilling pace at Dawes Island offers a template for what rapid, disciplined execution can look like on a field of this size.

With 17.6 million barrels of estimated recoverable oil and two wells now producing steadily, the reserve base leaves considerable room for the production growth Unuigbe has signaled is coming.