By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives (Tax Remission) Order, 2026, approving a landmark reform designed to unlock up to 50 billion dollars in deep offshore investment and restart Nigeria’s large, capital-intensive offshore developments that have remained stalled for decades.
The President signed the Order on Tuesday, 11 August, 2026, replacing project-by-project negotiations with a transparent, rules-based investment framework capable of supporting the next generation of deep offshore developments, beginning with the approximately $10 billion Bonga South West project.
In a personally signed statement, Tinubu explained that Nigeria had for many years possessed some of the most promising deep offshore oil and gas resources in the world, yet major developments had remained stalled due to the absence of certainty required for investors to commit billions of dollars over many years.
He disclosed that for existing deep offshore leases, there is a clear window to reach Final Investment Decision by Monday, 31 December, 2029, to receive the full standard incentive available under the Order, stressing that countries which attract long-term investment are not necessarily those with the greatest natural resources but those that provide the greatest certainty.
He described the Order as the tenth major oil and gas policy directive of his administration, explaining that each measure had addressed a constraint holding back investment, production or value creation, and that collectively they represented a deliberate effort to make Nigeria’s oil and gas industry more competitive.
Beyond attracting investment, the President said he wanted the accompanying work to come home to Nigeria, with Nigerian engineers, fabrication yards, marine and technical service companies, and young Nigerians acquiring skills that would outlast the first barrel produced, disclosing that projects accessing the Order’s supplementary incentives must perform activities in Nigeria, subject to defined exceptions and Nigerian Content requirements.
He said his ambition was to build Nigeria into Africa’s regional hub for deep offshore project execution, recalling that following his engagement with Shell plc’s Chief Executive Officer, Wael Sawan, he had directed his team to develop a framework that could unlock a wider investment pipeline while protecting the country’s long-term interests, a framework now in place.
A separate State House statement issued the same day disclosed that the approval enables NNPC Limited, as the government’s nominated counterparty under the Production Sharing Contracts, to proceed with necessary amendments to eligible contracts required to implement the framework.
The President’s Special Adviser on Oil and Gas, Olu Arowolo-Verheijen, described the emphasis on Nigerian industrial capability as a defining feature of the reform, explaining that qualifying projects would maximise execution within Nigeria to strengthen domestic engineering, fabrication, marine logistics and technical services, deepening local supply chains and positioning Nigeria as Africa’s regional hub for offshore project execution.
Tinubu commended the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigeria Revenue Service, NNPC Limited, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, investing partners and other stakeholders whose collaboration shaped the framework, reiterating that he would judge its success by good jobs, stronger Nigerian businesses, greater production and increased federation revenues.
