Can you introduce Heritage Oil and highlight its assets and operations in West Africa? 

Established in 1992, Heritage Oil is a private, independent oil and gas company with a diversified, international portfolio. The company's original premise was to take advantage of underexplored basins and try to mature the exploration opportunities without necessarily going into development. Today, Heritage Oil’s primary operating asset is the world-class OML 30 located in the Niger Delta region. OML 30 is owned by SNRL (45%) and NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL) (55%) with a subsidiary of Heritage Oil operating the asset on behalf of the JV partners. We also have an exploration license in Ghana where we hope to do exploration drilling in the next couple of quarters, and we have prospective exploration blocks in Papua New Guinea.

What are the challenges Heritage Oil has had to overcome with its OML 30 asset? 

OML 30 is the anchor of the Western Delta of the Nigerian onshore oil and gas industry and is a collection of three main assets - eight oil and gas fields, the Ughelli Pumping Station (UPS), and the Trans Forcados Pipeline (TFP), which delivers all the hydrocarbons from the Western corridor to the Forcados Oil Terminal (FOT) for export. There is a series of approximately 14 assets that transport their crude via the TFP, which is part of the OML 30 asset infrastructure. Since we took over the operatorship of OML 30 in 2017, we have embarked on aggressive rehabilitation and upgrade of facility equipment, resulting in additional wells being opened and optimized for production. 

We have had several challenges over the years, including the age of our infrastructure and our host communities, of which there are approximately 112 within the fields and along the pipeline. Having a productive and harmonious relationship with our communities is one of our core focuses as they are our most important and immediate stakeholders and we have to manage tensions and relationships to ensure security. Security in the Niger Delta is fluid – there are good times and bad times – and effectively managing the safety and well-being of people and the integrity of the pipeline is one of the key challenges we have had to address. Another challenge is understanding the landscape of the entire fiscal and regulatory framework, both from a national and state level of which each has its objectives and priorities. Trying to find the balance between these levels is important. 

What are the opportunities for Heritage Oil in Nigeria, Ghana, and across Africa? 

In the past, Nigeria, Algeria, and Angola were quite dominant players in terms of the International E&P industry. Recently, however, Ghana has become an important producer and we are seeing increased investment into Côte d'Ivoire, resulting in enhanced production. Senegal is coming onstream, and there are mega gas projects ongoing in Mozambique. With this changing landscape, the challenge most countries will face, especially against the backdrop of climate change, is making themselves attractive to investors. These countries will have to accelerate the exploitation of their natural resources within the timeframe that exists before technology or alternative energy sources disrupt things.

The geopolitics over the past two years have shown that energy security will remain, for the foreseeable future, a priority for most governments – more so in places like Sub-Saharan Africa where there are approximately 700 million people without access to cheap, reliable energy. Energy is the basis of economic development, and thus, if we want to address some of the migration crises that we see in the developed world, then we need to create an industrial base in the countries where people are migrating from. To create an industrial base, we need energy. People tend to look at these things in silos or isolation, but there is an interconnection - if we can establish industries in Sub-Saharan Africa, we can create jobs, and there is then no need for people to go seek opportunities elsewhere as economic refugees. 

What are Heritage Oil’s priorities and strategy moving forward? 

Heritage Oil will continue to be opportunistic as to new investments that we want to make. We have a five-year plan to double our production from current levels. In terms of our ESG strategy, we also aspire to eliminate flaring in our OML 30 operations over the next 12 to 18 months. We will drill our exploration well in Ghana, and hopefully with the success of that well, open a new chapter in the journey of the company.