Chief executive officer (CEO) of Heirs Energies Limited, Osayande Igiehon, Limited, on Thursday, gave insights on how the federal government’s executive directives rescued the company from existential threat, emphasizing that there has been a remarkable transformation in the oil industry, which has not been witnessed in decades.
Speaking during a media parley on Thursday, Igiehon said in December 2021, the company, with interest in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 17, could only access 3 percent of its production.
“But today we are thankful to the government for the turnaround that we have seen. It’s a remarkable transformation that has not been seen in decades.
“And what we’ve done is we have essentially shown the example of what is possible in Nigeria. In a recent interview, I gave the comment that there’s always the question of asking for more. I have been in the industry for about 30 years. I joined Shell in February of 1990. I can tell you, there is no time better than now for the oil and gas industry”.
Years back, he said the company faced an existential threat, but there has been a turnaround.
“It’s not a challenge, it’s a near-death experience. I think that’s the best way to describe it,” Igiehon said.
“If you look at all the conditions, there is no time better than now for the oil and gas industry.”
Igiehon noted that fundamental shifts have occurred over time, adding that recent changes were made in the right environment, in line with the presidential directives.
On how the company ramped up production within 100 days, Igiehon said: “When we came in we had 30 or more unproductive wells in 100 days, we reactivated about 30 wells. So we almost doubled the amount of wells produced in 100 days. It was a very focused program, and it was enabled by the things we were talking about. We had an experienced staff, we defined the relationship with the community, and we moved. There was even a well we just started last week. This well has been down for 37 years but we reactivated it.
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“ For several reasons, the previous operator could not restart it, and we have been trying to restart it for four years. We started it last week. It was community issues, it was challenging issues, it was security issues. But we started it up, and it’s producing very well. There was nothing wrong with the well technically. It was all the above ground issues, and we have dealt with all those issues. We confronted all the myths and disproved all of them, onshore Nigeria.
