Renaissance strikes light oil off Nigeria’s coast

Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited said it has found a significant new pool of light oil off Nigeria’s coast, the first major discovery for the indigenous operator since it took over one of the country’s biggest offshore blocks just over a year ago.

The company’s JK-004 exploration well, drilled in shallow water within Oil Mining Lease 74, struck roughly 1,000 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing rock spread across seven separate reservoirs, Renaissance said in a statement Tuesday.

Early readings from wireline logs and fluid samples pointed to strong reservoir quality and a lighter, more valuable grade of crude, the company said.

For Tony Attah, the company’s chief executive, the well is something of a proof point. Renaissance took over operatorship of the assets, an 18-license package that includes two export terminals and a floating production vessel in the Niger Delta, a little more than a year ago, inheriting fields long run by international majors.

Read also: Nigeria’s oil producers say 270 levies threaten investment revival

“The success of JK-004, just over one year after assuming operatorship of these assets, demonstrates the strength of our exploration programme,” Attah said, crediting regulators, staff and joint venture partners for the outcome. Renaissance operates the block alongside the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, TotalEnergies Limited and Agip Energy and Natural Resources.

Attah singled out Bayo Ojulari, group chief executive, NNPC’s leadership and upstream head Udobong Ntia — for what he called strategic guidance behind the joint venture’s push to deliver value.

Johnbosco Uche, Renaissance’s vice president of exploration and chief explorer, said the well reflects “subsurface excellence, technical rigour, and disciplined approach to reserve replacement” that the company has leaned on since taking over the assets.

“The JK-004 well provides a strong foundation for accelerated maturation with clear pathways to early development and value realisation,” Uche said, noting that the well’s location near existing infrastructure should shorten the path to production.

Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, called it consistent with the regulator’s push to grow the country’s reserves “to future-proof sustainable national growth,” and pledged continued regulatory support for operators in the sector.

Layi Fatona, a veteran Nigerian explorationist who chairs Renaissance’s board, said the find underscores the continued promise of the country’s oil basins and the value of disciplined, technically grounded exploration. He added that it shows “indigenous operators play a critical role in unlocking value, driving investment, and contributing meaningfully to national energy security and economic growth.”

NNPC’s Ntia congratulated the joint venture team on the execution of the well and said NNPC would step up support for reserve-replacement efforts of the kind demonstrated at JK-004.

Renaissance was recently ranked Africa’s largest oil and gas company by research firm Wood Mackenzie. The company runs Nigeria’s largest upstream joint venture, a sprawling shallow-water portfolio that has anchored the country’s oil output for decades.