Jude Atebe, managing director of Derotech Offshore Services, talks to The Energy Year about the investment momentum behind Nigeria’s offshore revival and the company’s strategy to expand into deepwater intervention and regional markets.
Derotech Offshore Services is a drilling company in Nigeria that operates a fleet of drillships, jackups and semi-submersible rigs.
- Nigeria’s offshore revival is gaining momentum as IOC divestments, licensing rounds, improved fiscal clarity and new deepwater investment create opportunities for indigenous operators, although local skills and service capacity will need to keep pace with activity.
- Derotech sees growing demand for deepwater intervention and other services as offshore assets mature, with technical partnerships supporting its strategy to expand beyond conventional drilling and build a broader Nigerian offshore services platform.
- The company is pursuing partnership-led regional expansion in markets including Egypt and Namibia, while AI and automation offer opportunities to improve offshore safety and decision making despite constraints around data, confidentiality and skilled personnel.
What are the main factors driving offshore investment in Nigeria at the moment?
The divestment of mature onshore and shallow offshore assets by IOCs has created opportunities for indigenous operators who have demonstrated that they can manage mature assets competently and extract resources efficiently and cost-effectively. Combined with the national drive to increase national oil and gas production, divestments are attracting interest and creating a visible uptick in activity.
Government policy is supporting this momentum. The 2024 licensing round resulted in 30 block awards, and it was followed by another licensing round for frontier, inland water and onshore assets in Q4 2025. The government is targeting production of 3 million bopd by 2030, compared with approximately 1.5 million bopd today.
FIDs on new deepwater developments are another important signal. We are seeing more contracting rounds, with tenders for deepwater rigs, conventional offshore rigs and land drilling operations. These opportunities are already materialising, with close to USD 50 billion in new investment earmarked for these developments. The Petroleum Industry Act has also strengthened the investment environment by providing greater fiscal clarity and improving investor confidence, reinforcing the government’s ambition to accelerate offshore development.
Taken together, the transfer of assets to capable indigenous operators, improved fiscal policies, new licensing rounds and deepwater investment decisions suggest that Nigeria’s offshore growth has strong foundations. The important challenge will be ensuring that local capacity, skilled personnel and service infrastructure expand at the same pace as investment.
Is Derotech Offshore Services expanding beyond conventional drilling?
We are building capacity through technical collaborations and moving into areas where we expect long-term demand. We are in discussions with potential partners.
Nigerian companies must continue strengthening their capabilities as the market evolves, and this includes looking at opportunities in mature deepwater assets and brownfield developments. Deepwater intervention is a particularly important revenue stream. As offshore fields mature, more intervention work will be required, and Nigerian companies are positioning themselves to provide those services.
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board is supporting domestic firms that have demonstrated the capacity to deliver world-class services, and in this environment, Derotech intends to attract technical partners and enter areas where we can continue adding value, as we have done over the past decade.
We have an exclusive partnership with Noble Drilling and have created a dedicated company to carry out our joint business. We will not partner with another organisation to provide a competing service in Nigeria, but since Derotech is a group of companies, we can develop complementary verticals that do not conflict with Noble’s interests.
We are considering making an entry into other segments of the energy value chain, including alternative energy, while retaining the integrity of our existing partnership. Our objective is not simply to provide drilling services, but to build a Nigerian platform with the technical competence to support increasingly complex offshore developments.
What does Derotech’s project pipeline reveal about the state of the market?
It shows that activity has increased significantly. In 2026 alone, we participated in four deepwater tenders, and we secured the widely publicised Esso opportunity. We remain in the running for others, including one with TotalEnergies for a drilling campaign expected to begin in Q4 2026.
If we are successful with TotalEnergies, Derotech would have two deepwater drillships operating in Nigeria. The commercial opportunities promised by Nigeria’s efforts to revive the offshore sector are becoming real.
Although Nigeria remains a substantial market, our strategy also contemplates regional expansion. We are negotiating with potential partners in Egypt and are also evaluating opportunities in Namibia.
Expansion will occur where we can bring value, and deepwater intervention could provide the best opportunities. Together with Noble, we have been working on a solution that could involve an intervention vessel operating across West Africa, which would allow us to serve maturing offshore assets outside Nigerian waters from our base in Lagos. The priority is to expand carefully, through credible technical partnerships and into markets where our capabilities address a genuine operational need.
How do you expect technology and local capabilities to shape future offshore campaigns?
AI and automation are already improving safety on rigs by reducing human exposure to high-risk activities, but the industry can achieve much more. Incidents still occur because of poor decisions or unsafe interactions between people and machines. AI-supported automation can help reduce those risks.
Subsurface decision making is more complex. The industry has accumulated significant volumes of data, but they are not held in a single repository. Greater collaboration could unlock substantial value, but confidentiality and data ownership must be managed carefully.
AI can support decisions, but competent people must interpret the information and remain accountable for outcomes. Know-how is therefore one of the most important operational constraints. It is challenging to find qualified staff to handle increases in drilling activity, particularly in deepwater projects, which involve more sophisticated equipment and more difficult environments.
This is another reason why having the right local partner matters to international investors. Companies entering Nigeria need a partner that understands the territory, legislation, local content policies, regulators and operators. Nigeria may be considered a high-risk market, but the rewards are also high.
source: theenergyyear.com