NNPC Cuts Exploration Spending by 87%, Gas Flare Bill Falls to N499bn
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) slashed additions to its exploration and evaluation assets by 87.7 per cent to N78.8 billion in 2025, from N640.5
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has scaled back its exploration and evaluation investments by a staggering 87.7 per cent, reducing them to just N78.8 billion in 2025 from N640.5 billion in the previous year, according to the company's latest Annual Financial Report (AFS). Simultaneously, the company's gas flaring charges plummeted by 62.2 per cent, falling to N499 billion in 2025 from N1.32 trillion in 2024.
However, the decrease in exploration funding may be linked to a lack of progress in drilling hydrocarbon reserves in underexplored regions such as the Chad Basin, Benue Trough, Bida Basin, and Sokoto Basin in northern Nigeria, despite significant investments in these areas. In a further twist, President Bola Tinubu's Executive Order 9 of 2026 has now halted NNPC's collection and management of the 30 per cent Frontier Exploration Fund (FEF), directing the funds directly to the Federation Account for distribution among federal, state, and local governments.
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