Nigeria’s Oil Firms Rise to 117 as Local Content Hits 61%
The development was revealed on Tuesday at the 2026 Nigerian Oil and Gas Midstream and Downstream Summit in Lagos, where industry regulators, lawmakers, investors, and operators projected fresh investments in refining, gas processing, petrochemicals, infrastructure, and local manufacturing.
The summit, themed “Unlocking, Growing and Sustaining Nigerian Content Development in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Midstream and Downstream Sectors,” focused on strategies to deepen local participation and retain more value within Nigeria’s energy industry.
Speaking at the event, Acting Manager of Midstream Monitoring at the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Patrick June, said the expansion of indigenous participation had also created 11,934 jobs across the sector.
“For instance, Nigerian companies in the upstream sector, which were dominated by international and now national companies, were just less than 10. But as we speak, operating companies are about 117, with a job creation of 11,934. So, that is a significant improvement,” he said.
June disclosed that the NCDMB database currently contains about 11,764 service companies, hundreds of firms registered under the Joint Qualification System, 50 fabrication yards, 20 engineering design firms, and 122 manufacturing companies.
He noted that local content performance had grown from below five per cent in 2010 to 61 per cent in 2025, reflecting stronger indigenous participation across the oil and gas value chain.
Also speaking, Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Felix Ogbe, represented by the Head of Planning, Research and Statistics, Austin Azuka, said reforms, policy stability, and rising investor confidence were transforming Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
According to him, recent investments, particularly the commencement of operations at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, were helping to reduce the country’s long-standing dependence on imported refined products.
Ogbe stated that the board was expanding its local content drive beyond upstream operations to strengthen participation in the midstream and downstream sectors, including gas processing, transportation, storage, refining, petrochemicals, logistics, and retail distribution.
He added that Nigeria was gradually shifting from being only a crude oil producer to becoming a processor and exporter of finished and semi-finished energy products.
