Africa Oil Corp bullish on Nigeria growth, Namibia long game

Canada's Africa Oil Corporation will double its Nigerian output and the size of its reserves there once it completes its deal for full ownership of Prime Oil next Tuesday, a senior company executive said.

Africa Oil will increase to full ownership its shareholding in Dutch entity Prime Oil & Gas Coöperatief, whose main assets include indirect stakes in deep-water producing Nigerian fields operated by TotalEnergies and Chevron.

"On closing of that deal we will significantly change the scale of our business, we will double production, we double reserves and significantly boost our liquidity position," Oliver Quinn, chief commercial officer at Africa Oil told Reuters.

Once the deal is complete, Africa Oil expects to produce around 35,000 barrels per day, he said.

"They are very significant value barrels because they have very low lifting cost of under $10 [R180), so the margin on the barrels is high and typically sell at premium to Brent," said Quinn.

With its partners, Africa Oil said an infill drilling campaign was planned this year to maintain output in mid-life fields.

Besides Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, the company is also present in Namibia's prolific Orange Basin via a 40% stake in Impact Oil and Gas with exposure to the Venus discovery.

Operator TotalEnergies expects to take a final investment decision in 2026 and propel Namibia to becoming an oil exporter at the turn of the decade.

"Our focus is to add to the cash generation machine, which runs through the decade while on the backend Namibia Venus comes onstream and then we have significant growth in that asset," Quinn said.