The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has urged the country’s major upstream industrial stakeholders to ramp up crude oil production in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's commitment to positioning the nation’s oil industry as a globally competitive destination.

The minister reiterated this commitment in separate engagement meetings with the management of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria Limited and Chevron Nigeria Limited, who paid him official courtesy visits to his office.

During the interactive session with the management of SPDC, the outgoing Managing Director of SPDC, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, seized the rare opportunity to introduce his successor, Mr. Marno de Jong, who is currently the Vice President for Africa, and their team.

According to Senator Lokpobiri, the management of Shell during the visit reiterated the company’s commitment to its line of upcoming upstream investment projects in Nigeria and further expressed the confidence the company has so far and the enabling business environment the present government has provided for the company

“They (Shell) highlighted their investment projected to run into billions of dollars in demonstration of their continued confidence in our energy sector,” Lokpobiri stated

In his meeting with the management of Chevron Corporation represented by Mr. Clay Neff, President of Chevron International Exploration and Production (E&P), and Mr. Jim Swartz, Chairman and Managing Director of the Nigeria/Mid-Africa Business Unit, The Honourable Minister tasked the company to commit further of its global investment in Nigerian deepwater operations in a way of deepening its existing partnership in the country’s energy sector.

“We explored avenues for deepening collaboration, particularly in the deepwater segment, where I encouraged Chevron to scale up its investments. Both engagements reaffirmed the government’s dedication to fostering a stable and attractive environment for long-term energy partnerships,” The Minister Asserted.

Shell is significantly investing in Nigeria's upstream sector, particularly in deepwater projects and liquefied natural gas (LNG) development. This includes a $5 billion investment in the Bonga North project and a focus on growing its LNG output to 12 million tons per annum by 2030. Shell is also divesting its onshore Nigerian business while focusing on deepwater and integrated gas positions.