Nigeria Aims to Unlock $50 Billion in Offshore Oil and Gas Investment

Nigeria is positioning itself as a leader in a global shift towards oil and gas investment away from chokepoints. The country aims to attract up to $50 billion in new offshore projects, which could help diversify supplies and reduce reliance on vulnerable maritime routes.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) highlights that new incentives for offshore oil and gas developments have the potential to attract $50 billion in investment. These incentives form part of a broader deep-offshore framework recently approved by President Bola Tinubu, designed to replace project-by-project negotiations with transparent, rules-based fiscal terms.

The framework aims to restart long-stalled capital-intensive developments and is expected to support 22 major offshore projects coming on stream between 2026 and 2030. Nigeria's deepwater assets, along with those in Namibia, Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Guyana, and Brazil, sit in the Atlantic basin, reducing concentration risk in the Persian Gulf and adjacent waterways.

Global offshore field development committed capital has surged, with Westwood recording a near-doubling of FIDs in the first half of 2026. Nigeria's push coincides with a broader acceleration in offshore sanctioning and high-impact exploration outside the Middle East.