Nigeria’s push to attract fresh investment into its oil and gas industry has received a major boost after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and its partners signed key agreements to advance the proposed Bonga Southwest/Aparo deepwater project, which could attract up to $21 billion in investment.
The agreements are expected to move the long-delayed project closer to a Final Investment Decision, potentially paving the way for one of Nigeria’s largest new deepwater oil developments.
The project is located in Oil Mining Lease 118, offshore Nigeria, and involves NNPC and major international oil companies, including Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited and Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited.
Under the latest development, the parties executed an addendum to the OML 118 Production Sharing Contract as well as an addendum to the Dispute Settlement Agreement. The agreements give effect to fiscal and commercial terms approved by the Federal Government for the project’s development.
The Bonga Southwest/Aparo project is expected to attract between $15 billion and $21 billion in investment over its development and operational life. At peak production, it is projected to produce approximately 175,000 barrels of crude oil per day, alongside about 140 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
The scale of the proposed project makes it potentially significant for Nigeria’s efforts to increase crude production, strengthen energy security and generate additional revenue from the petroleum sector.
The latest agreement follows President Bola Tinubu’s approval of the Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives (Tax Remission) Order 2026, a policy measure designed to make deepwater investments more commercially attractive.
For years, Nigeria has struggled to attract sufficient investment into its deepwater oil assets amid concerns over fiscal terms, project costs, regulatory uncertainty and delays in securing investment approvals.
The Federal Government has therefore increasingly sought to present changes to the country’s petroleum fiscal regime as part of a broader effort to restore investor confidence.
The Bonga Southwest/Aparo milestone is being presented by NNPC as evidence that those reforms are beginning to translate into actual investment and project development.
Beyond crude production, the project could generate wider economic benefits through foreign exchange earnings, government revenue, employment and opportunities for Nigerian businesses involved in engineering, fabrication, marine services, logistics and other aspects of the petroleum value chain.
The development could also strengthen local content if Nigerian companies are given meaningful opportunities to participate in engineering, procurement, construction and offshore services.
According to industry reports, the project has already completed its pre-front-end engineering design phase, while preparations are progressing towards the Front-End Engineering Design stage. A preferred contractor has also reportedly been identified for the project’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility, subject to the completion of the required approvals.
For Nigeria, the timing is significant.
The country continues to seek higher oil production after years of declining output caused by ageing infrastructure, underinvestment, crude theft and operational challenges.
New deepwater developments such as Bonga Southwest/Aparo could therefore provide additional production capacity and help sustain Nigeria’s position as a major oil producer.
However, the announcement also raises an important question: when will the investment translate into actual production and revenue?
Signing the agreements is an important milestone, but the project still needs to pass through further technical, financial and regulatory stages before full development and production can begin.
The government will consequently need to ensure that the investment framework remains stable while addressing concerns over project execution, cost management and environmental responsibility.
For NNPC and its international partners, the immediate objective is to move the project successfully towards Final Investment Decision and eventually into construction and production.
If delivered as projected, Bonga Southwest/Aparo could become a major addition to Nigeria’s offshore production portfolio, potentially contributing 175,000 barrels of oil per day at peak production.
More importantly, the $21 billion investment target could signal renewed international confidence in Nigeria’s deepwater petroleum sector.
The challenge now is to turn the agreement into production, jobs, revenue and broader economic value for Nigerians.
For a country seeking to revive its oil industry, the Bonga project represents a major opportunity—but its real success will ultimately be measured not by the size of the investment announcement, but by how much value reaches the Nigerian economy.
